Reasons To Be Cheerful: Part 3.
Before I start embellishing about all the joys of being a grandfather, I have to step back a few decades to explain the reason for the title of todays post.
So here it is.
When I was in college (over 3 decades ago) I had a substantial music collection of vinyl records and singles. I'm sure a few readers are saying what! This guy has a record!? Yep, the type of that plays on a turntable.
Anyway, I chose today's posts title from my storied musical past. "Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3" by Ian Dury & The Blockheads. This 45rpm single, released in the UK in 1979 was exactly as advertised, cheerful, the B-Side "Common As Muck" also great fun. I purchased this treasure in 1980 along with their 1st single "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" the B-Side "There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards" elicited even more auditory joys.
Okay, I have to give more relavent details before I can get to the grandfather thing.
Two years ago my mom passed after a long battle with cancer, leaving my father to a very solitary lifestyle. We would talk nearly every day from 990 plus miles away, watching pro and college basketball, football and NASCAR races, favorite TV shows (Person of Interest, Elementary, etc..) or just updating daily stuff from five states away. In August of 2013 after several of those daily stuff conversations dad and I decided that I should move in with him in Old Town Florida. For years I had been taking all my vacations in Florida, I would visit my parents a couple days, then head further south to visit my daughter, and then stop back with the folks before returning back to Indy. So a permanent relocation of this sort was a perfectly natural progression.
Plans started hatching, cogs started turning and the wheels where slowly gaining motion. For many reasons I knew I was ready and Dad was very pleased. With the plans evolving, it was still a few weeks before I announced my retirement plans. After 25 plus years of employment at Roberts Camera in Indianapolis I was stepping into a new and completely different adventure.
As fate is prone to do, fate stepped in. Dad had a seemingly minor bump into a chair arm bruising his back between hipbone and rib cage. This 'bump' was causing a considerable amount of pain and was not improving. Dad started having serious mobility problems. Dads neighbors, the Lamberts had to force dad to see the local Doctor. Eventually they persuaded him to see more qualified Doctors at the University of Florida Hospital in Gainesville. As they helped nearby, I kept in touch, I still had four weeks to undo more than just my job.
Saturday September 7th was my last day of work at Roberts, it was more emotional than I expected. Meanwhile in Dixie County Florida, Dads neighbors were forcing dad to see local Doctors, and taking him to the Gainesville University Hospital. As they helped, I kept in touch, I still had four weeks to undo more than just my job.
A week and a half before my departure, David Andrichik and the Chatterbox (my longtime favorite watering hole) threw me an outstanding going away bash with food and drink. So many people attended that the inside, outside patio, sidewalks and street were packed with so many of my wonderful friends until well after dark.
A yard sale came and went, my lease car was returned, a U-Haul rented. On September 26th 2013 I left with as many possessions I could box and pack. At 4:07 AM on the 27th I locked the rental, dragged myself up the stairs of the stilt house on the Suwannee River. Within minutes I fell into a deep cathardic sleep. I awoke in the same house I had slept in at least 60 times during the last 11 years, but this time I was home. Dad stopped driving the minute I arrived, he rode shot gun. After a few weeks he signed over the title, I got ownership and a Florida liscense.
About a month later dads "bump" threw a clot, eventually causing a massive stroke. He never regained coscienceness and passed on November 7th. His physical remains share agravesite with my mother in Old Town. My brother and his wife were there for a few weeks before dad passed. My daughter and her family were up from Port Saint Lucie several times before and after dads stroke and eventual passing. Two weeks after the funeral, another U-Haul, a three hour caravan south with daughters family and me.
I awoke again in a bed I had slept in a before. I was, for the third time in less than three months in a different home, and I was home.
Despite all the sadness of my parents passing, I am still with family. Better yet, I am now in the same house as my grandson Tucker. He's 25 days away from his second birthday and is adding to his personality, skills and vocabulary daily. Eventually I know I will have to find a decent job and my own residence, but even then I will certainly have Reasons to be Cheerful.
"Reasons To Be Cheerful, 1,2,3." Part 1: Being near my daughter's family. Part 2: Being able to watch my awe inspiring grandson grow and learn daily. Part 3: In July I will have a second grandchild to fawn over and spoil as much as I possibly can.
