Grieving the loss of my grandfather has been a difficult process. It began in July with a difficult surgery and has tugged at my heart strings and the lump in my throat ever since. One thinks eventually you will grow numb to the incessant sting of missing someone but, after five months of missing him, I know I can only miss him more as the days go by.
He was a really wonderful grandfather, better than the kind that teach you how to change a tire. The lessons he left behind were not tangible. But I know, they will come to me on a rainy day and fill my heart like a grenade. Everyday he proved that waking up was our biggest blessing and most extraordinary accomplishment. And with a few words he would remind us that anything beyond that, good or bad, was just icing on the cake. "How are you today PawPaw?" "I woke up today didn't I?"
Perhaps it was surviving a German Prison camp {that was never as grusomely described by him as it was in the red cross reports} that forced him into his sunny perspective. For my grandfather every day he got to spend sharing his bowl of frosted flakes with a new morning made him a lucky man.
In an effort to preserve the life they once had, I have collected as much of their possessions as my family will allow. In this collection, is a book of poems. It sends the familiar scent of their house into the air as I open it to offer this poem.
This poem is written by an unknown author, it is the lesson he taught us...
TODAY
And if tomorrow shall be sad
Or never come at all, I've had
At least today!
This little strip of light
'Twixt night and night
Let me keep bright
Today!
And let no shadows of tomorrow
Nor sorrow from the dead yesterday,
Gainsay my happiness today!
And if tomorrow shall be sad
Or never come at all, I've had
At least today!
