The fist time I saw you, you were in bed resting. I wasn’t scared of you. Probably because my mom hugged you and looked so happy to be next you again. I remember you liked to walk around on your gated driveway to “get vitamins from the sun.” You taught me how to make a paper airplane. I would throw it recklessly and sometimes I would have to ask you to get it for me because it was out of reach, usually on top of your big wooden cased TV.

You were my hero a few times too! Remember when I wanted to help with the firewood, but in actuality I just wanted to find the wood that was shaped like guns? Then me and Kathy would pretend to shoot the dogs and the pigs. Then I ended up getting splinters in my finger. That was the worst pain I could remember at the time. You took a pair of tweezers and got that damn splinter! I remember feeling kind of special because those were the same tweezers you used to take gold specks from rocks you found at the mountain.

I liked your car too. The blue bug! I always thought it was missing an engine. I never did understand why we never drove it around town.

Years went by until you moved here to the states. I didn’t recognize you but I knew who you were because you were just as nice as when I first met you.

Thanks for always making sure I was awake in time to have breakfast and get ready school. Double thanks for taking me to school when I would miss the bus or had to go to ODC early in the morning. I do miss the sandwiches you would bring home from work. I miss the pancakes you would cook for us when we all got home from school for a snack. You always added sugar to the batter so we didn’t have to use syrup. You used to make chicken nuggets from scratch and always ask “is it better than mcdonald’s?”

Remember when you used to live at my parents house and you had the vegetable garden? Tomatoes, eggplants, and squash are what I remember the most. Well, just last year I started the garden back up. I tried to take care of it just like you did. I looked at old pictures and your garden is still better than mine. I should have paid attention more back then but you know I’d rather go play around the neighborhood.

I can go for hours upon hours about you. You always seemed to know what’s right. You could build anything and didn’t even need instructions, just some nails and spare wood.

Grand dad thanks for watching over us. I miss you more and more everyday.

Happy birthday Grand dad!!!

Found these cool kids doing cool things in their sketchbooks

not a sketchbook but check this book out