My Grandpa Jack

My Grandpa Jack passed away two weeks ago and it was a sad day for all. I am so glad that I got to make it to Idaho 3 weeks ago and see him for the last time. We were talking technology as he explained to me his latest gadget that he had gotten. A PDA that had many functions such as a voice recorder, planner, internet browser and navigator. It seemed to be something good to talk about to keep his mind off of the trouble he had breathing and problems with his heart. In my mind I knew that he didn't have much time on this earth so I was glad that I was in town. I wish that we would have discussed a bit more about life and the times that I enjoyed growing up and coming to visit grandpa's house.

As I departed and said my goodbyes I told him that I loved him and wanted him to get better. I wish that I would have told him more of the things that I appreciated him for. One of the things that I learned from Grandpa Jack was hard work. If working until you are, I don't remember how old, 120 maybe says something. This says that he was never one to sit stagnant. I was surprised that he sold the Jewelry store even though I shouldn't have been because he was like 120 years old.

I also learned from my Grandpa how to wheel and deal. Grandpa Jack was a great business man and always got what he wanted. He never seemed to be dishonest but always worked hard in negotiations. I hope I picked up a little of this up on my own. I think that I picked this up from my mom mainly who can get her money back on a non-refundable airline ticket.

I am also thankful that my Grandpa was supportive in all that I did. He was a big advicate of my mission and wrote me often while I was in Finland. That meant alot to me and I saved all of his letters.

I am going to miss the emails he would always send to me. In the last 2 years since I have been in Arizona I have kept in touch with Grandpa via email. He would always send me 2-3 mass emails a day to let me know he was still ok.. Some were funny, some spiritual, some cheezy and some weird but it was just kind of his thing of passing along what he enjoyed. I know that some of them always made me prove my Christianity because if I didn't forward his email to 10 people within 2 hours I wouldn't be called a Christian. Or If I didn't forward a certain email to 10 people in 5 minutes my great grandson would catch a nasty flu on his 12th birthday.. or something goofy like that.

I am also thankful that my Grandpa taught me to be conserving and not wasteful. He would try to fix things before he threw them out. This is the opposite of the mentality of today's society of if it is broke just throw it away and buy another one. I ended up reprogramming his credit card terminal 2 years ago with my company and he was really concerned that the reciepts printed longer and that more paper was used in the process. He approached me with this concern and I didn't know what to say. I had encountered previous clients with concerns of slow service time, bad pricing, slow terminals, long contracts or slow deposits into their bank accounts but never a reciept that printed a inch to long. So I called my technical support specialists and they were baffled. There was no way to fix it accourding to them so I had to break Grandpa the bad news. I hope that I can have that quality of not being wasteful pass on to me.

I will miss you Grandpa and hope to see you down the road.