Me Grandpa Joe was cantankerous enough. I'm not overly proud to say that he's the only adult family member I ever raised my voice to; one should never, ever, raise their voice towards a parent, grandparent, or adult family member. You simply should not. Yet I yelled at Joe a few times. The damn thing is, I don't think he cared. I doubt it mattered to him one lick. We were just both mad at each other for an instance, and that was that. To be sure, it never seemed to affect our relationship.
He was a considerate man, when all was said and done, I don't care what no one says. Some of my most sublime moments involved him, indeed, came about from him.
I lost my first grandparent when I was 19. Me Grandmaw Hutchins passed away suddenly, I believe it was June 1979, while Mom and Dad were down there visiting. I've always been glad that Mom was there, that she had the chance to see her own mother one more time before she passed. As I understand it, me Mom was on the phone with one of her sisters and had turned to ask her mother about something. Grandmaw turned to answer, but before any words came from her mouth her head head turned down and she was gone. The doctor said she was dead before her chin hit her chest, the stroke was that bad.
Me Pops called us, as the three oldest of us had not gone south that summer. I'll never forget answering the phone, as I was home from the Shop for lunch. "Your grandmother passed away," was the first thing he said. Funny, I suppose, but he sounded the same way in 1991 when me Grandma Cosgriff left us in June of that year. Art, the man we rented a cabin from at the time, came to our cabin with his phone (there were no cells then) and said me Pops needed to speak to me. I was sure it was about Joe but Dad said, in the exact same way as he had said 12 years before, "Your grandmother passed away." His mother had died suddenly late one Sunday night.
As my wife and I walked out to the end of the dock that evening, the kids already being asleep in the cabin and me wanting a minute, we ended up sitting on a bench at the end. "Well, I always knew Joe would be the last to go, " I said somberly. Me Grandpaw Hutchins had left us at the end of May 1987. Joe, he didn't take care of himself at all, so of course he'd outlive the others.
Anyways, when I got back to the Shop Joe was sitting with a cup of coffee, so I made meself one too. And it was quiet, very quiet, and still. We was just sippin' at out coffee.
Joe was draggin' on a cigarette. In a minute or two he said, and he actually choked up, pullin' hard on a cigarette, "I'm sorry about your grandmother." Obviously me Pops had called him too.
"Thanks," I replied. "Well, I'm lucky," I continued. "Ain't many 19 year olds get to know all four of their grandparents." I was lookin' him square in the eye. He was lookin' square back.
"Yeah," Joe said, dragging on a cigarette. And we just sat, I dunno, for most of the afternoon, drinking coffee, him smoking. I really don't know where Zeke, me Uncle John, was. Likely just sitting on his tool chest as he always did when nothing was up.
But you know what? I ain't never gonna forget just sitting there with Joe.
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