South Platte Sentinel Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012 Page 10 Opinion

Grandpa’s spirit lives on in his great-grandson

BINGO! Reminder!

VFW Post Meeting

First Wednesday

Of Each Month!Nov. 16, 2012

PUBLIC INVITED

Hamburgers & Hot Dogs

VFW Post Home803 Phelps St.

7:00 p.m.

Five years ago this week, my Grandpa Wally, my mom’s dad, died. It happened just a couple of weeks after Q was born. I still remember calling my grandma to tell her the news about Q, and her crying as we said goodbye. At the time I thought they were tears of joy, and maybe they were. But she also received bad news that day: My grandpa’s cancer had returned, and spread throughout his body. I don’t know whether or not I believe in reincarnation. I haven’t thought about it too much. However, I do believe Wally is with us today in my son Brooks, who I like to call Little Wally. Brooks’ big hands; his round face that lights up with his sparkling blue eyes when he finds something funny or receives a loving gesture; his

sweetness; and his stubbornness remind me so much of my grandpa. When Brooks yells at me and hits the tray of his highchair when he’s hungry and waiting for food, I have flashbacks of my Grandpa sitting impatiently as my Grandma cooks his meal. I imagine he wanted to yell and hit the table, too. I halfway expect Brooks’ first sentence to be, “How many miles do you have on your car?” And when he begins to dress himself, I wonder if he’ll insist on perfectly pressed slacks, collared shirts and cardigan sweaters. My Grandpa had a tough up-bringing, which he turned around to create a family reminiscent of the Cleavers. His dad was an alcoholic, and his mom was mentally ill and not able to care for Wally and his sister Erma, so Erma raised my

Grandpa in large part. My Grandpa wanted to be a teacher and coach, a dream that didn’t come to be as his family didn’t have the money to send him to college. Instead, he worked at factories, including the Keebler company. When the plant in North Dakota shut down, my grandma, grandpa and their three children (my mom was the oldest) moved to Denver. Like most men in his generation, my Grandpa was loyal to the companies he worked for, which, in addition to Keebler, included a company that manufactured cardboard boxes. He worked his way up the ranks

to become a manager. My Grandma stayed home with the kids until they were older, then she worked as a kindergarten teacher’s aid. My grandparents did not make a lot of money, but they were savers. They lived in their modest home in Denver nearly 50 years. When my Grandpa died, my Grandma moved to a patio home that will allow her to live independently, hopefully for a long time. My Aunt Sandy shared that in the last few months of my Grandpa’s life, he told her the story of him asking his Dad for money for college, and how he said he didn’t have any to give. It’s hard for me to imagine this in today’s world with grants and student loans. Today, virtually anyone can go to college. My parents didn’t save for college for me or my brothers, but we all took out student loans so we could go to college and earn bachelor’s degrees. Andy and I put away money every month for Q and Brooks. We just looked at Q’s savings, and she already has $6,500 for college. I

think Wally would be proud. I’m thankful for the legacy my Grandpa left. He was so steady and solid. He never changed. I never heard him yell, except to the television during Broncos games, just like my older brother Ryan. My Grandma and Grandpa are the reasons I stayed on the straight and narrow path. I never wanted to have to answer to them; that was about the worst punishment I could have imagined. My Grandpa loved Andy, most likely because he saw some things in Andy that were like him: His love of personal finance; his interest in sports; his kind and calm nature. It will be interesting to see if Brooks continues to look and act like Wally as he gets older. Perhaps he’ll be a teacher and coach someday, like his Daddy was, and his Great-Grandpa wanted to be. (Kerri Long is a writer and stay-at-home mom. She and her husband, Andy, have a preschool-aged daughter, Quincy, and baby boy, Brooks.)

A Labor Of Love

ByKerriLong

Sterling Area League of Women Voters (LWV) will host Stuart Ellsworth, an Engineer Manager with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, at its regular meeting Sun., Nov. 18 at 4 p.m. The meeting will be at Faith United Methodist Church, 230 Williams Place, in Charmony. Enter at the north door between the two wings of the building. Ellsworth will speak on hydrofracking, a process used in fracturing rocks underground to increase flow of oil from wells. This has become an issue in Colorado and the State League of Women Voters has chosen the subject as a study. The public is invited to attend the meeting. For more information contact Al Peltzer at 522-5228 or Joanne Jefferies at 522-0315.

Hydrofracking topic of LWV

Genealogy ‘breaking walls’ Logan County Genealogical Society will meet at 7 p.m. on Tues., Nov. 20 in the meeting room at the Sterling Public Library in Centennial Square. The subject for the evening will be “Brick Walls.” There will be some ideas presented that might help break through a “Brick Wall” preventing, for example, finding a maternal grandparent such as maybe discovering where this person lived. Anyone who has had success breaking down a wall is invited to share his or her experience with the group so that experience may help someone else. The public is always invited to Genealogy meetings. For more information contact Joanne Jefferies at 522-0315 or Iris Lambert at 520-9493.