How I Remember GrandDad

  What strong hands, my grandfather had. He sure was not allergic to work; he could do just about anything. Always seen with khaki pants and white socks over the cuffs, he was more at home like that than in a suit and tie, for sure.

He had an incredible sense of humor! He would tell the wildest tales that could keep you under the sheets as a child, and spellbound as you got older. Since he always tried not to laugh and give away his teasing you, you always saw him with his tongue in his cheek.

One time, I remember him with a stuffed bear head, growling as he came into the kitchen where my mom and I stood--scared the life right out of me! He stood there with his tongue in his cheek, face red, and shoulders moving up and down, looking like a pleased young lad to have taunted the school girls!

My grandfather wasn't all fun and games, but smart as he could be. Though he only finished the 8th grade he studied and learned a great deal on his own, becoming a naturalist and also a taxidermist for the National Smithsonian Institute. The Smithsonian sent him all over the world to collect specimens for the Nation's Capital and was even asked to help the Government of Panama start a museum there amidst the many ongoing wars.

During summer months when I was in high school, he'd take me to work with him and teach me so much about the diversities of animals and how to do a small amount of taxidermy work. What interest he awakened in me to appreciate what we have right here around us! The eagles nesting nearby, even stories and experiences he had as a child and facts about American and South American Indians were always fascinating when he told you about it.

There was a love, a bonding we had between us though I don't ever remember hearing him say that he loved me, but I know now that he did. It was in his eyes, his tightly closed lips when he tried to hold back a mischievous smile and it was in his sharing of that he loved most --God's handiwork--nature.

I see him somewhat as I see nature-together they are: silent but full of messages; mysterious but open; fascinating but scary; beautiful but dangerous; so vast but so limited; reaching out but unreachable; full

of life, but full of suffering and also death.

I wish you could have spent more time with Aaron, Granddad. He was so young when you left. He shares the same love of nature that we do and he would have asked soooooo many questions; you would have enjoyed him so much!

I miss you, Granddad. I miss the sharing and I regret that I didn't tell you how much you meant to me while I had you with me. But I never knew how much I'd miss you till after you left. What more could you have taught me? What more could I have shared with you? I knew you had a lot of emotional pain, but I couldn't understand it, so I kept somewhat distant-scared and hurt. I love you and I'm proud that you are MY grandfather!

I trust that you made your peace with God, so I'll see you again; and we can sit and talk for hours with The One Who created what we both love so much. The mysteries will be no more. Understanding and truth will reign. We will love and laugh and praise The One Who made us family -- grandfather and grand daughter for all eternity.

Thank you, Lord, for found memories of my grandfather!

Janet D. Coulby granddaughter of Watson M. Perrygo

 © July 1993