(no subject)
About an hour ago, I got word that one of my favourite relatives has died. Everybody in the family just called him Opa, no matter that he wasn't our real grandpa. He was a wonderful man, kind and warm and good hearted and just the most wonderful person you could ever want to meet, so different from all the bitter shrews in the family. He was never nasty or negative and always looked at things with an air of "well, it's gotta be good for something, right?" which is so amazing, especially since he had been really sick time and time again. Cancer, severe diabetes, you name it, he had it. But he never complained, he took everything in stride, even when things got really bad - and there was quite a bit of family trouble for them, too.
He never got embittered and you could always talk to him and count on him to put things in perspective.
Of course he pulled those stunts that just seem to be standard for older people who are too stubborn for their own good. Like two years back, when he, just out of the hospital, decided to clean out the garbage bin and fell over with the bin only to slide down the really steep slope of their lawn with it. Doesn't matter how bad his health was, he needed to putter around the house and garden, that's what made his life worth living.
I saw him the last time last summer - the last few years we used to go on holiday down where they live and so we at least got to see him and his family semi-regularly. I'll miss him a lot, and it will also be so hard for his family because he really was the centre of everybody's world.
I think the worst thing is that, as soon as I heard my aunt's tearful voice on the phone, I knew what had happened.
He never got embittered and you could always talk to him and count on him to put things in perspective.
Of course he pulled those stunts that just seem to be standard for older people who are too stubborn for their own good. Like two years back, when he, just out of the hospital, decided to clean out the garbage bin and fell over with the bin only to slide down the really steep slope of their lawn with it. Doesn't matter how bad his health was, he needed to putter around the house and garden, that's what made his life worth living.
I saw him the last time last summer - the last few years we used to go on holiday down where they live and so we at least got to see him and his family semi-regularly. I'll miss him a lot, and it will also be so hard for his family because he really was the centre of everybody's world.
I think the worst thing is that, as soon as I heard my aunt's tearful voice on the phone, I knew what had happened.