A Blog Update I Never Wanted to Write

 

I haven’t updated my blog in quite awhile for those of you keeping track and other than the business that is my life, I don’t really have a good reason for not updating.  I just knew that in order to update my blog I would have to write this particular update and if I avoided writing it, it seemed less real. 

 

On March 1^st I was a ball of stress trying to figure out how I was going to get to Montgomery, AL since both Delta and the weather seemed to be against me.  I had to take a 2 week class there and I already had several flights get cancelled on me.  I was trying to find another option for travel when my cousin Jayme sent me an IM asking if I was ok.  I was wondering why I shouldn’t be ok and called her.  She then told me that Grandpa had died.  I assumed she meant my Grandpa House who has been in less than stellar health for awhile now, but she informed me that it was Grandpa Taisey.  I couldn’t move, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t even cry…I was just in shock.  Grandpa Taisey was in good health, he was supposed to have knee surgery in a few weeks and had passed all his pre-operation tests.  He was going to get back out and golf this year, he was going to travel. 

 

For those of you that follow the blog he was married to my grandmother that passed away in October 2007.  Those two had a love that everyone else in the world should want to have.  They were married when I was one (my biological grandfather has passed away some years earlier) and they were inseparable.  He was my grandma’s hero and she was his angel.  When she died I have never seen someone so sad or lonely.  Even months later when I was home for some reason or another and he stopped by to see me, he told me how much he missed her and how lonely he was.   When Jayme called me that day she told me it appeared he had died sleeping in his arm chair, probably of a broken heart. 

 

I was set to go to Montgomery the next day and I could barely keep it together long enough to travel.  I had already missed the first day of class due to weather and I knew that if the funeral was during the week, I wouldn’t be able to go and still graduate from this class.  I had no idea what the Air Force’s repercussions would be on paying back a trip that I didn’t successfully complete the mission for and I figured this didn’t qualify for family leave because it wasn’t an immediate family member that had died.  So off to Montgomery I went.  I was delayed in Atlanta for about 5 hours and when I finally reached Montgomery I remembered why I dislike the south.  Everything moves at the speed of paint drying.  I finally got a rental car and went to retrieve my bags, but one was missing.  Apparently there were 2 flights that landed at the same time but not enough baggage help to unload them both.  Well myself and a few others had to go back to the Delta check-in counter to report our missing bags, because Montgomery is too small to have a baggage office.  As I’m standing in line I’m thinking in my head that I should be on my way to Syracuse and it’s ridiculous that I’m standing in Montgomery where I know no one and have no one to even give me a hug.  That’s when the tears started…and when they start they don’t stop.  So here I am 25 years old standing in the Delta line crying.  This woman behind me said, “Aww sweetheart, it’s just luggage.”  I then explained my situation and she gave me a big hug and said, “I’m a preacher and I know nothing I can say right now is going to make you feel any better, but if you want to talk…I’m here.”  Then she gave me another hug.  It wasn’t like being home, but it was what I needed at that moment.  I finally got my luggage and checked in at Maxwell. 

 

The next couple of days were a blur.  I was trying to figure out how I could get home, if it was economically feasible and if my class would let me.  Since the funeral was on Thursday I would miss too much of the class for the professors to ignore, so I wasn’t able to go home for the funeral.  There is nothing lonelier than knowing that your whole family is there with each other while you sit in a stupid dorm room in Alabama crying alone. 

 

I heard the memorial service went well.  I still don’t feel like I have closure.  It probably won’t hit me until I actually go home and realize that I can’t go to 30 Daniel Drive.  I wanted to get up and tell some Grandpa stories at the funeral and since I couldn’t do that, this forum will have to do. 

 

Grandpa Taisey wasn’t our biological grandfather but since our biological one died before any of us grandkids were born, he was the only grandfather we knew and he always treated us like we were his real grandkids.  Which meant that we were spoiled, a lot. 

 

When you were sick you always wanted to go to Grandpa Taisey’s because he would let you watch the Price is Right and then take you to McDonald’s for Happy Meals. He even let my sister go fishing when she was sick. 

 

The Lorton Lake camp was fun for both my grandparents.  I remember going up there and my grandfather saying that there was a sign that said “No Grandchildren Allowed!”  When really it said something about loving grandchildren.  He just had to pick on us. When we went out on the pond in the paddle boat it was always a race to see if we could get away from the fountain in the middle before Grandpa turned on the fountain.  And no weekend at camp was complete until Grandpa made pancakes on his outdoor griddle. 

 

I remember my grandma telling me that Grandpa was very upset the day he saw me walking at the county fair holding hands with my high school boyfriend.  It wasn’t that he didn’t like the guy, he just didn’t want me to be growing up.  Recently he decided that I was going to marry a military guy (Grandpa was in the Navy), and every time I went on a date with one, he would call or send a card telling me that you can’t beat a good serviceman.

 

Grandpa is probably best going to be remembered for his sense of humor.  He was always playing practical jokes on people.  One of the jokes he used to tell us as kids was, “Adam and Eve and Pinch Me Tight went down to the river to see a fight…Adam and Eve fell in who was left?”  Of course the answer was Pinch Me Tight…which then would get you a pinch. 

 

Then of course there was the Papa Red snowmobile and the circus tent bathing suit that he insisted on wearing.  All the grandkids would fight over who got to ride with Grandpa on his snowmobile.  And that bathing suit was just loud! 

 

Wednesday night I played a concert at Carnegie Hall (more on that in a coming entry).  On a necklace I had my grandmother’s engagement ring.  My grandfather had given it to me last April when my mom had surgery along with a very touching note that I still have.  It might seem silly, but I’d like to think that if there is something beyond this life, then my grandparents were there watching that concert.  All night long my fellow band members were asking about the ring and I was so proud to tell them about it.  I only almost started crying once but I managed to keep it together.  To me that ring is a tangible symbol of their devotion to each other and a reminder of what I want to find in my own life.          

That is all.