As long as I can remember, I was always interested in one thing or another.
One of my favorites was a huge wall map of the world, filled with pins to mark their travels.
That was something I always admired about my grandparents.
They belonged to the World Traveler's Club.
And while I know nothing about the criteria to belong to the club,
What I always knew about them was that they were constantly on one adventure or another.
I remember stories and slideshows about trips through Chile, to Antartica,
African Safaris, Cruises, France, Germany, Russia...
No matter what area of the world a conversation pointed to,
One of my grandparents would always have something interesting to say about that region.
Often it would be a quip about the people from my Grandma,
An identifying landmark or a comment about the surroundings,
And sometimes my Grandpa would bring the history of an area to life for me.
"How marvelous,"
I used to think,
"To be so well traveled, to study so many cultures, to find beauty in every place."
To find beauty in everything.
It's a talent, really.
One I hope I have learned from them.
Along with the travels,
The stories,
And the myriad slides that my photographer Grandpa kept in catalogue,
There were the Things.
The collected items that were displayed from room to room.
Just waiting for their stories to be told.
Some things were pulled out as part of another story.
One of my favorite things as a little child, stood near a hallway that led from my grandparent's kitchen to their lanai.
Oh, I miss that house on Chapman.
It wasn't even my house and I so miss it.
Years later I lived just two streets away, on Elmwood.
And I would walk down Chapman,
Slightly out of my way en route to the college,
Just to see it.
On the wall by that hall, hung a little cuckoo clock.
I remember playing on the floor and having my attention called to it.
Over and over and over again.
I loved that clock.
Another memory, very dear to me, is of hours upon hours spent with my Grandpa -
Sitting in the study in that Chapman house,
Watching the Sound of Music.
I loved that movie.
More than I loved Annie.
I can't even attempt to tell you the number of times I watched it with Grandpa.
And the reason I loved that movie was because of it's brilliance, yes.
But, every time I watched that movie with Grandpa,
He would start to tell me about the people of Austria,
And the beauty of the Alps,
And I felt like I was there.
My grandparents retired when I was a teenager.
Grandpa eventually succeeded in convincing Grandma to move south to be near the beach.
And that Chapman house was sold.
They bought a great new house in Vista.
Still with plenty of room, for plenty of guests...
They were perpetual hosts.
That house still always has people flowing through it.
The house was very nice, but I was a little wary of it at first.
Until I realized that it was still full of all of the same Things.
I don't know where the cuckoo clock landed.
I don't remember it ever being in the Vista house.
But another very special clock did make the move.
My Grandfather's clock.
Just as the cuckoo clock had held my attention,
This one always drew me in too.
There's something so powerful about a grandfathers clock.
It keeps ticking and ticking,
And chiming and chiming,
And ticking some more,
As though it will go on forever.
My grandparents have always been very special to me.
I even lived with them for a short while.
I have so many memories I treasure with them.
So many lessons I've learned from them.
My Grandpa taught me that you never loan a friend money. You give it to them.
He also taught me the importance of a dog by asking me what it spells backwards?
(I think that was his very favorite joke.)
My Grandma taught me how to see good in every situation and inside every person.
And the two of them taught me how you can marry two wildly different backgrounds and families
Into one larger-than-life love story and family that reaches far wider than blood ties.
I love them.
My Grandpa passed away shortly after Ephram was born.
While we had seen his decline for several years,
In the end it went much too quickly.
And, with my little newborn, I wasn't able to travel to Riverside to see him be buried in Arlington.
I miss my Grandpa.
But I have so many endless memories to lean on.
Sometimes I hear his words, see the twinkle in his eye, in the life that continues to move around me.
Sometimes I think I feel him watching me.
And, when I visit with my Grandma, there are lessons still to be learned.
And there are the Things to remind me of ones I well know.
Like the grandfather clock.
Which I share with my kids.
And try to pass on the lessons my grandparents have taught me.
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