Patty Memories
Created by The Family 9 years ago
Some favorite memories of my gramps...
The stories about how he used to drive me to the airport to get me to fall asleep as a baby.
How he taught me how to drive, he is still in my head every time I parallel park.
How he used to take me fishing with all his friends on his boat. And the one time he took a young neighbor boy and I was trying to be cool and slipped and fell on the Green Algae. Had very green - white pants. (It is funny now, but was embarrassing at the time.)
Walking down to his house and getting treats.
How I share his love for photography. He invented the "selfie". He had purchased a new camera and was testing out the tripod / camera timer. There are a few of his face really close to the camera, some of him sitting on the chair with a top hat and coat. He loved to take photos.
How when he was teaching me how to play poker and he would tell me to play a certain card (as he was "helping" me), I would play it and we'd laugh because he would beat me then. So funny..
The cassette tape he sent me with all his favorite music I will treasure for ever. I was glad to be able to put a dvd together for him with some of his favorite songs. Like "Hit the Road Jack" that I made him play over and over when driving to Pennsylvania with him.
What he wrote in my Autograph book that I got from Universal Studios when we came to CA when I was 13. "To my one and only Pitter who makes my iife worth living. Love, Gramps"
I remember talking to him on the phone one day and he was saying he was so tired. I said Gramps you're 96, you have the right to be tired. He said no it's not that, I stayed up until 3am reading this really good book and we both laughed.
I recently found the 90th birthday song on a piece of paper that Paula wrote and we sang to Dancing Queen for his surprise birthday party.
I will miss that every time we were dating someone he'd say, they better treat you good or else. "I know people" who will take care of them. Too funny... When I talked to him when Alex was first dating James, he said it about him and we laughed because I said all the people you know are in wheel chairs or walkers.
I'll miss his love for horses, dogs, cats and animals in general. I would have never ridden horses or worked at the race track if it wasn't for him. I loved how he was alway saving dogs like Freeway and Sam. Freeway he rescued from the side of the highway. And Sam was abused by his owner (the guy even beat and buried him alive). Out of all the houses on the street to go to - Sam went to my grandfathers house knowing he would be loved and safe there. Sam is going to miss my grandfather a lot.
I loved how he would send me notes when it was just me and the girls here and I was going through the divorce. Just to let me know that he missed us and that he was always thinking of us.
He would come out here and visit and take such good care of my girls. He even would take them on a plane and visit my sister in Arizona. The girls just loved his stories about Italy. He would show them a map and tell them where he grew up and what it was like there.
The fact that he took me and my sister's out to dinner to ask permission to marry Rita. We told him whatever made him happy he should do.
When I thought he owned a catering business not a catering truck. I volunteered him to make dinner for a fundraising event. Him and my family were such a troopers to make all that spaghetti for the organization I volunteered with called "Happy Hopes for the Handicapped". We had a good laugh afterwards.
I hated to say goodbye when I left to go back to CA from Ohio recently as he always got so emotional as he missed us dearly.
I will miss talking with him on the phone most months and hearing him say I miss and love you.
Pictures
Patty and Gramps