PA

My Pa died on Monday morning, surrounded by his family, in Florida and in peace, at 90 years young. After an excessive amount of phone calls, pleading, handing out credit card numbers, crying, train rides and extremely long and cold plane rides, I made it back for the funeral. It was also made possible by some extremely nice and patient people in the Netherlands and Germany and I am so extremely grateful to them. It was well worth all the effort to properly say goodbye to one of the most amazing people I have ever known and be surrounded by my family.

But enough about me. Let’s talk about Pa. Because, seriously, he was one awesome person. He was an award-winning painter, a writer, a traveler, a veteran, a gardener, a wine maker, a story teller, a generally nice person and overall, one fabulous grandfather. I really don’t even know how I can do him justice on a blog, but I know he read it to keep up with my travels and I want to honor him in my own little way, because I couldn’t be there to say goodbye to his face.Of course with death (especially a grandparent) comes the old clichés about how you wish you had more time with them, had talked to them more, said I love you more, and gotten a chance to properly say goodbye. It's weird for me to think about the 66 years Pa had before I was even around and how I didn't and won't ever really get to hear about all the amazing things he got to do and see. Luckily, though, he kept a record of his long and eventful life. I haven't gotten a chance to read everything, but he went to a lot of cool places and got to see and do a lot of really interesting and fun things. And, lucky for me, I did do a lot of listening while he was still here and got to spend a lot of quality time with him. I have so many great memories of times spent at my grandparents house and other visits with them. I'm going to try and share some, but they're all random and scattered, so bear with me.

He made his own wine in his basement, in the wine cellar and whenever he took me down there with him, it was my special duty to pull the string that turned on the light and he always made sure I performed it to my maximum potential. After our visit to the wine cellar, we would spend time in his greenhouse, watering the plants and making sure all was growing like it was supposed to. He also grew mint right outside the porch steps and when we would go pick it, he would talk to his friend Mr. Bee that lived in the plants. I was convinced that it was the same bee that lived there for at least four years and that Pa really was friends with him because he never got stung. And he had another friend, Moley, a stuffed mole who would crawl up his arm and had been with him around the world. My brother was completely convinced Moley was real and took him to show and tell in elementary school, positive Moley was just sleeping while on display. I remember him up in his beloved office, at first painting and going through his collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and then later, after he lost his sight, at his computer, with everything enlarged five times so he could read or look at things. And he was always so nicely dressed. He had a hat for every occasion and a suit to match. He was an extremely stylish man and would often out dress everyone he was with. He loved to drink a nice cold beer or a nice glass of wine and was always cracking jokes and making everyone laugh, even when he was sick or in pain. Being Irish, he loved St. Patrick's Day and knew how to celebrate it right.

Whenever I think about Pa, I always picture him laughing. Everytime his face materializes in my mind, there is always a smile on it and I can think of very few times in my entire life that I see Pa in a less than cheerful mood. Going to his funeral, reading his stories, listening to his friends and family and going through old pictures made me realize just want an awesome person he really was and how lucky I am to say he was MY Pa. And even though it makes me unbelievably sad that I couldn't be there with him when he passed, I have no doubt he knew how much I loved him and I that am the lucky one that inherited his traveling bug. I hope to keep making him proud with my travels and want to make it Egypt one day so I can understand his fascination with the country.

And just in case you needed proof of how awesome he was, let me tell you about his last wishes. It was his first choice to be buried completely naked, with only his Army dog tags on. But because he knew my grandma wouldn't go for that, he opted instead to be buried in his Guinness pajama pants and Carney's Pub t-shirt, with Moley in his hand. Seriously. Awesome. Apparently it was genetic.

I miss you Pa. I know you're looking down on us, laughing, drinking and living it up in your pjs.