Wedding Wednesday: Gaga and Pappy edition

So I am in a deeply reflective state today.

{Pappy holding me}

My maternal grandfather - "Pappy" is what my sister coined him as the first grandchild back in 1970 - is fading now. At the ripe age of 94. He will be 95 in June. He has had congestive heart failure for years and seems to be fading now. I have been thinking of special memories of him this week. M and I had a good visit with him on Saturday. He and I talked about Duke basketball, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and just our usual small-talk. When M talks to him it is more about sharing Army stories, guns, and the like which I cannot relate to that well anyway! He has liked M a great deal which I have enjoyed knowing - he always talks highly of him when he doesn't accompany me on visits home. He also had fun 'talking' to our golden-cocker mix, Lily, who loves him a lot, too!

Pappy is from a very old Virginia family line. His Dad had a stable of horses and was a horse breeder. They lost a lot of their money when the stock market crashed. Prior to that time, his father was a Senator in the General Assembly here in VA. He died when Pappy was 26. Pappy was a golf caddy with his childhood friend Sam Snead at The Homestead. They used to get champagne and food leftovers and enjoy them after all of the big parties in the 1920s. Yes, Pappy was a caddy as a pre-teen. So wild that it wasn't a big deal back then. After high school, Pappy went to VPI (what is now Virginia Tech) as an Engineering major. He enlisted in the US Army Air Corps in 1941.

When my Gaga was only about 15, he started courting her but obviously she was still too young for him as per her parents (8 year age difference). While in Savannah for USAAC training, he bought a black cocker spaniel which he paid a man to deliver to Gaga. He found an old apple crate and fixed it up for the dog and stuck the puppy in there. I think that probably won her over for good. They married when she was 18 years old on Christmas Eve of 1943.

Pappy taught me about golf, and encouraged me to play. We used to watch the Orioles baseball games together while I drank a can of Coke growing up. We both love the Ripkin family. He taught me about riding horses, how to not be afraid to get in a small stall with one, how to load the horses into a trailer, how to lift up their hoof to clean them well. He encouraged me to try all kinds of riding. He let me ride his horses bareback out in the county when they had their land there. When I moved to Baltimore he taught me how to pronounce it 'like a local' - "BAWL-MER." He learned that from one of his aunts who moved to Baltimore in the 30s. He taught me that getting old does not have to mean being fat or inactive.

He would drive his old truck - with his Army Air Corps unit on his license plate - out to the family property in Bath County and work the land. Not work the land like a farmer, he just enjoyed making the area park-like. He would use his tractor to mow it. He made a dam and it formed a man-made lake on some of it. He would just spend the day out there because he could.

About ten years ago he completely rewired their home. Alone. He taught me that getting old does not have to mean shrinking in height or having a curved back. I am sure if he had the strength to put on his Army Air Corps uniform, it would fit. He doesn't get new clothes because his size changes. He gets new clothing from all of us because he wears them out! It is a gift how much time we have had with him.

I hope the coming days are as comfortable as my aunt reassured me he is now. I hope the "bright lights" bothering him now will become soothing. I hope that he does not get aggravated or annoyed or impatient. As he said to Gaga and my aunts last night, "is it over?" At least he still has his humor, right?