Today, during the noon time, Mom and Dad called grandpa and said Happy Father’s Day to him. He is 97 now. He was very excited when we called. That made me to recall, last X’mas, we (Joseph. Diana, Arlinda, Cassandra, Big Brother & Sister) had dinner together in a restaurant. He was very slow but managed himself with the help of his two lovely grand daughters. We were very glad he was there. He was very emotional and almost choked when Mom handed a red-envelop to him. Mom was really shaken up even when the dinner was over. I could see the sweat coming out on Mom’s face & neck when grandpa struggled to take his breath back. Mom was really scare at that time. Althoug, it was okay few minites later and Grandpa did enjoy the dinner.
Your grandpa is a very strick man and bad temper, with little self-control, I think. He only receives elementary school education and with fewer means than I have. But, without him, I could never have the tools that I have today because he emphasized and insisted on education. Sometimes, just a little bit too much. Once I challenged him about my math. Basically, I said don’t expect me to have better math scores if you never had one. I got your bad genes. He was really mad and I got a lot of bruises on my body with pain everywhere which lasted several days.
As you know I was far from the favorites among our 8 siblings. And I believe I still am. Even with that, I always think that it is not easy to raise 8 kids even-handedly. Looking back, I think I was really an outcast, nobody-likes-type when I was young. In addition, grandpa probably did not have a lot of other options to begin with. It wasn’t that bad considering that all his 8 kids received higher education. For that, I am really in debt to him (your grandpa), even though I still have had strong feelings and disagreements with him about his ways of raising us.
But in short, I am proud of him and hope he has a wonderful Father’s Day this year and many more years to come.
I remember visiting grandpa when I was little. I can still see him in the garage carefully making a wooden shipping case for the Barbie vacation RV that Aunt Jane got for me. I also remember when he had a heart attack when we were visiting him and that it was scary. He never showed his strictness or temper to me and always seemed happy to have me around.