June 26th

Most of you reading already know that June 26th is a very special day for me. It started with being my grandma's birthday many years ago. Years later I came along on the same day and thus began our combined birthday celebrations. I'll save the long version of the story for another time, but I arrived 5 weeks early and unexpected. My grandparents were away on a cruise and my mom told my grandma about the best birthday present she could get... me! Each year, I'd go to my grandparents in the summer and spend some time there bonding with them and grandma and I would celebrate our birthday's together. To be honest, there was a point in my life where I felt like I would get pushed aside and it was more of a "her" celebration, than a "us" one too. It was never intentional. It never happened that way. But my feelings were real... and it hurt.

Eventually though I got over it and as I got older I grew to honestly cherish that day. On June 26, 2000 I got the worst news to date. My grandpa had been sick with several health issues his whole life, but in January of 2000 the news came that he had liver cancer. My mom used to make the comment along the lines of, "How is that fair, he didn't even drink." Sometimes it just doesn't make sense. From what my memory recalls he was given 4-6 months of life left. Leave it to grandpa John to go until the end of the 6th month. I am so grateful for the time that I had with him. The memories I have of him will stay in my heart forever. My favorite ones are:

-He could fall asleep anywhere. A lot of times, he'd rest with his eyes closed, but he was still awake listening, even when it didn't look like he was. You'd be having a conversation and all of a sudden he'd pipe in with some quippy comment.

- Grandpa was a pipe smoker. During the summers he'd come outside to watch me swim in their pool. Sometimes he'd let me sit on his lap and he'd draw letters on my back with his pipe and make me guess which letters it was. Seems like a silly game, but I remember playing it a lot and having fun!

- He had such a quiet disposition. I never heard him complain. Talk back. Talk about anyone negatively. Just nice company.

-Every year when I went to Visalia for my yearly stay, he'd always take me out to get a Thrifty ice cream cone.

-The blue Volkswagon. There was a button on it that he'd tell me to push and it would make the car stop. I believed him. YEARS later I realized that there was no purpose to the button. It didn't work. When I pushed it, grandpa would just press on the brakes.

The night we got the call his life was ending I'll never forgot. I was getting ready to go out to dinner with my boyfriend at the time and my parents to celebrate my birthday. The phone rang. I answered it. Uncle Bob. He said hi and that he hoped I was having a good birthday. I don't think I ever got a call from him on my birthday so I knew something else was going on. After a few minutes of hi's and how are things going, he told me. He said that grandpa wasn't doing well. He said that grandma was convinced he was going to leave us, but that he (Uncle Bob) wasn't convinced. I never told him this, but after hearing him say those words to me, I knew it was the end. There was such sadness and scaredness in his voice. He's such a strong man that to hear his voice quiver like it did, it was all the confimation I needed.

As he was talking to me, I remember I couldn't talk anymore and I couldn't hear what he was saying. I heard him talking, but not the meaning. I went outside to get my mom. She was smoking a cigarette and she looked up at me. I just stood there with the phone. I guess the look on my face told her something wasn't right. She asked who was on the phone. I couldn't answer. She asked what was wrong. I couldn't speak. She said, "Is it grandpa?" I nodded yes. I cried. She took the phone and talked to my uncle.

Dinner was good. That's really all I can remember about it. When we got home that night I was on the computer. It was a little after 10pm and the phone rang. It never rang that late... unless something was wrong. My parents were already in bed and I heard my mom answer the phone. I stopped what I was doing and cried before I knew what happened. When my mom got off the phone she came to talk to me. We hugged. We cried.

In a sad situation there is always a bright side, you just have to find it. Three years later on June 26, 2003, Cameron John was born! How wonderful to have a reason to celebrate and be happy again. How intentional is it, that within the same blood line, you have a birthday, a granddaughter birthday (the only granddaughter :), grandpa passes on, and another life is born! I mean, if that's not intentional and meant to be I don't know what is.

Each year now we all celebrate together and we always make sure to remember grandpa John. This year was extra special. Grandma turned 90!!! There was a little party planned for her that she almost didn't make it to.
In the end my uncle had to tell her what was happening just so she'd show up! As much as she complained about it I know in her heart she was greatful and happy. She looks good for being 90 and you definitely cannot tell her age. She's always go, go, go! She makes me smile.