I said good bye to someone very special to me today. He goes by many names: William, Bill, Billy, Billy Boy, and my personal favorite Pop. Or as his beautiful wife would say 'just don't call me late for dinner'. Pop is my grandfather and my moral compass. A lot of wonderful things can be said about what Pop has done his whole life, he was a doctor and he helped teach and train new doctors at the med school in Youngstown, Ohio. Sure he did that for a living, there was that; or I could describe to you all the amazing things he did on the side to help people. He was in charge of the entire branch of Habitat for Humanity in Youngstown as well where he did amazing things helping to build houses for those less fortunate. But to me, and all of my cousins, Pop had one job: Grand Kid Entertainer Extraordinaire. I may be biased but I think this was his true calling. Some of my first memories of Pop are following him around the house in silly hats, to his Forth of July music, waving our little American flags. And does anybody else remember the Abercrombie Fitch and Penelope Pinwheel stories? The flying bed, and the time machine washer? He told me he came up with those on the spot, but I have a feeling there were ideas for those stories always floating around that brilliant and busy mind. He also convinced me that when he and Gam would fly home from visiting us, they would parachute out of the plane and land in the backyard. He told me once that he calculated wrong and ended up in the woods belonging to the next door neighbors, but not to worry because Gam landed on the trampoline. Yeah, I believed that until I was 12. He would participate in our hide and seek games. He would whoop our butts in ping pong and he even taught me how to play beer pong. He let one of my cousin's drive a golf cart and she ended up destroying a garden. He would let you wear his coke bottle glasses until you felt sick from the prescription. That is exactly how I remember Pop... surrounded by 10 squealing grand kids. Whether we were playing with his hair, or fluffing his eyebrows, or one time he tried to 'de-ticklise' my feet, I think it's safe to say that our parents always knew that if they could hear fun happening on Whippoorwill Way, Pop was close by.
Pop is the greatest. He has a closet full of crazy sweaters, and multicolored pants. He was wearing a floral shirt once and told me he had to water it daily to keep it looking good. He got kicked off of a golf course once for having shorts that were to short. He thinks very carefully and uses his language to his advantage. Instead of saying 'yes, please', Pop says things like 'yes, I think a touch of pudding would be splendid'. He told me stories about working on his fathers farm growing up and he and his sister taught me the secret language they used around their nannies. He was a man of his stories. I remember one time he was taking the grand kids to a driving range. Somehow we missed the turn off and drove past it for about 30 minutes because he was navigating and got so wrapped up in the story he was telling that he forgot to tell the driver to stop.
Pop had the stretchiest face of anyone I've ever met. I used to stretch it for him and place it into silly positions. He used to try and make me break into laughter during the serious parts of dinner by hiding behind napkins and appearing with a different funny faces each time. Even today he was winking those beautiful blue eyes at me and flashing that crooked smile, all for the purpose of making his youngest granddaughter smile.
He loves his family more than anything. He organized multiple family get-togethers for various reasons on the Jersey shore and in the Berkshires just because he wanted to be surrounded us. He told me he feels bad when he talks to other people about his grand kids because he feels like he is bragging. That never stopped him, though, from beaming with pride whenever he discussed his high quality family. And the feeling couldn't be more mutual.
I recently realized why he is so good at his Entertainer Extraordinaire job; he is making other people happy, and that's what brings him joy. His happiest moments are those when he can share joy with others. I shared a lot of laughs with that guy and I couldn't be happier to call him my Pop.
