Sorry for the radio silence the last several days. I’m mostly apologizing to myself for the writing drought. But if you’re out there reading, I’ll apologize to you as well. I still keep fighting for the daily post. Lately seems like weekly is a tall order. I at least have a good excuse this time. I just got back from an extended weekend in Mississippi, where believe it or not, there are still places the Internet can’t reach. Or cable. Or pizza delivery. But I digress.

We visited my family, gathered for father’s day with the whole crew and also celebrated my grandfather’s 80th birthday. More than 200 people crammed into a mid-sized fellowship hall to wish him well and share his special day. Most of them were close to 80 themselves (or past it). In other words, the club was jumping. I kept looking for the DJ in the corner spinning records.  Sending a shout out to G-Daddy. 

All joking aside, it was a really nice party. It was great to see how many people cared enough to spend part of their Saturday honoring my grandfather. As part of the festivities, everyone was asked to write down a memory they had of him and place it in a wooden box for him to read later. It was a neat idea. I’m still working on mine and will send it to him in the next couple of days. I thought it would be worth sharing some of it with you as well.

My greatest memory of my grandfather is actually a string of occasions. At every point in my life, when someone would discover this man was my grandfather, they immediately would say, “Oh, your grandfather is a great man. He’s a truly great man.” It didn’t matter who it was on the other end of the conversation, it was universal accolades of greatness. Every time.

My grandfather is a man of God, a good Samaritan, a tireless supporter of the church, his family, his friends, his neighbors and his community. He is a gentle man with strong hands and an enormous heart. He is hard-working. He is honest. He is kind. He doesn’t have a selfish or self-serving bone in his body. He’s lived his entire life with others in mind, with service to God in mind. And I can’t recall one moment where I have witnessed anything to the contrary. I can’t recall one person who didn’t think the world of him, who doesn’t still think the world of him.  His legacy, his witness, the impact his life has had on anyone who knows him is obvious.

I would love to say that he is at the top of the list of people who have most significantly shaped me and influenced me, but sadly I can’t. It’s not for lack of effort on his part. It’s from lack of insight on mine. If I had internalized and applied 1/20 of the way he lives his life, I would be so much better off in my walk, in the way I treat others, in life in general. He is a treasure I haven’t fully spent, a gift I haven’t fully received. And as we sang Happy Birthday to him for the 80th time, I realized that I have been remiss in not soaking up every character trait and piece of wisdom from him that I possibly can.

My grandfather walks as closely to God as any man I know. Seems if I’m so interested in doing the same, I’d pay more attention to his success and how he has sustained it. Even through serving our country overseas on the heels of World War II, losing parents and multiple siblings in a variety of ways and standing by my grandmother through a bout with cancer, his resolve has not wavered.

Age hasn’t overly kind, although he maintains good health given the breadth and depth of his life experiences. And even though you have to speak REALLY LOUDLY to him these days to carry on a conversation, you can still see and hear what has made and continues to make this man great. 

My favorite thing about my grandfather is that he is still a bawler, a playa, a mack daddy, a catch if you will. At his party, the groove that it was, he had two women laying claim to him should anything happen to my grandmother. One was a spry, baby-faced 60-year-old shawty.  Go G-Daddy! It’s your birthday!

So, here’s to the great man who is my grandfather. Thank you for the memories.