My Grandpa.

I am going to attempt to write this post in one sitting, but we shall see how it goes I guess.

On the bank holiday weekend my Grandpa was taken into hospital with internal bleeding. He was been pretty ill now for over 2 years. Things seemed quite dire at one point and there was talk of serious ops and all sorts. Being the medical mystery my Grandpa is he managed to get better and on the following Saturday (less than a week after he went in) he came home with recovery on the horizon. I didn’t worry too much as I know he is a strong man and he just wanted to get home!

However this Sunday I woke up to a phone call from my mum. He had passed away that morning after he came home. By the sounds of it, it was exceptionally quick and I am just happy he got to go home and have his pipe and his beer. He got to spend the night watching countdown with my Grandma and he was at home, his home he had lived at for I believe almost 40 years.

My Grandpa was a very kind man, he was also exceptionally smart I always used to tell people that he was the most intelligent person I knew and I looked up to him a lot. He had a naughty sense of humour and every time you gave him a kiss hello or goodbye you got bristles scratching your face and a damp cheek from where he smoked his pipe something I will dearly miss. I have so many fond memories of him as he was such a character he did things his own way I know that when the pain of losing him eases when we are together as a family there will be hours of laughter when we remember back to some of the eccentric stories we have of him.

I have never lost a close relative, and the feeling is just as bad if not worse than I had imagined. The last two days I have been very teary going from getting on with life and then have a good weep or sob. Today I am exhausted and I don’t think I would even have the energy to cry anymore, which scares me as it’s only been 3 days since he has passed. If I feel this awful now how will I feel in two weeks’ time?

My Grandma is very much in my mind at the moment. She is being looked after and supported by the family, but she has lost her world really. Almost 65 years they were together, and I loved to watch them banter and talk. You could always see this love between them that never faded ever even when my Grandpa was winding people up with his teasing!

So I’ll end it with Rest in Peace Grandpa. I want you to know that I am grateful you were in my life as I grew up and I always admired you and looked up to you. You will always be the big strong exceptionally intelligent man I remember and I will continue to tell people about you proudly as I feel sorry that they never got to know you. It will never be the same without you ever. But thank you for the love and all the generosity that you gave and I hope that one day I will see you again.

Love Toria