Yesterday there was a memorial service for my Grandpa who passed away in December, down in Oregon. I had to miss it. He had been going downhill for about a month or so after have living a year and 1/2 longer than my grandma who died in April of 2007. I believe he was 95, but I'm not 100% sure on that. I know his birthday would have been in February.
I thought about not posting this, because my brother wrote it to say at my Grandpa's memorial service and I risk him not ever emailing me and asking my opinion about anything ever again..... However we've gone about 35 years of him not really asking my opinion on much, so really.... it's not that much of a risk. Sorry if this annoys you big brother.
I just really thought it was good and brought back some fond memories I had forgotten about... So here it is...
When Grandma died, I wanted to say something at her service but I choked up and chickened out. I regret that. So for myself and my sister Jill, I want to offer these thoughts as a tribute to both Grandma and Grandpa, I am pretty sure Grandpa wouldn’t mind.
It wasn’t until largely after the fact that I realized how lucky we were to be so close to our Grandparents. Looking back it seems like we were at their house almost every weekend when we were kids. The memories I have of that time are honestly 100% good ones.
I remember:
They had cable TV, we didn’t - this was an incredible thing to a young kid. When we got to their house, I would start by looking for Monster movies, war movies and then westerns. You could always find one or the other. Cartoons were good too.
Their house seemed huge and there was always a lot of Stuff, nothing in particular just lots of stuff to keep us occupied, as Jill said, it was always like a treasure hunt. As big as the house on Lozier Lane was, the back yard was bigger and full of endless adventure for us.
There were cherry trees and an apple tree. Nobody ate more of those cherries than the Brill grandkids. There was the pool, we swam often. When we got older we brought our friends to swim. Some of them still bear scars from those days.
I remember Grandma and Grandpa telling us that we had to wait an hour after eating before we could go swimming or we would cramp up and sink to the bottom… I think this “theory” has since been debunked, but they had many many theories that stuck with me.
I also remember grandpa’s favorite swimming related line, which was if you pee in the pool the water will turn red because of a special chemical he used and everybody would know. I later determined that this was untrue.
I remember the buildings, the “Radio Shack” as it was called, where grandpa had his HAM Radio, the spooky building behind the pool… and then there was the area “behind the hedge”. It seemed so vast… the trail over to the shop where I would go to get Grandpa at lunchtime; The Greenhouse, which I remember thinking was hot; The Garden, the field and the scary barn where the wild cats lived.
I remember needing to be specific about drink choices, if you simply asked grandpa for a glass of water you would likely get a glass of HOT water.
I remember the apartment above the garage that my Cousin Dave and I almost burned down.
I remember the Moose horns in the garage, the patio with the pool table that I don’t believe I ever actually saw, because of the all the “stuff” on it. I remember the spare refrigerator that ALWAYS was stocked full of unique flavors of Shasta Cola and the “Candy Drawer” where we could always find something cool (Jill remembers fruit striped gum). I remember hot tea with lots of milk and sugar.
I remember learning to ride a bike in the driveway, and I remember grandpa trying to teach me Morse Code (the only thing I remember is SOS, which still may come in handy someday). They had a dog, the first one I remember was Molly, and the second was a blue healer named Dody, who always growled at my dad because she knew he was going to give her a shot.
I remember traveling cross country with Grandma and Grandpa to see our Cousins in Colorado. I remember thinking that the Great Salt Lake was not so great, but that it seemed endless. As long as I live I will never ever forget the Continental Divide and what its geographical significance was. I was quizzed endlessly on this point and told, one day you will have this question on a test. I did, and I knew the answer.
I remember family gatherings and especially holidays like Christmas or Christmas eve. Dinner took forever, and then Grandma would always say, we can’t open presents until the dishes are done. I hated that, but we now use that line in our house as well.
I will remember hunting and fishing trips with Grandpa. He took me hunting several times. I think we may have seen deer once or twice, but I don’t ever remember a shot being fired. The lone exception was the time he wanted to show me how powerful and dangerous a rifle was. He found three small trees lined up in a row, took aim and pulled the trigger. The bullet went cleanly through all three. I think back and am pretty sure he just wanted to see what would happen. But it was memorable and I never forgot. Grandpa could hunt though, there should be no doubt about that, as is evidence by the many pictures and moose horns. But looking back, I don’t think actually shooting a deer was the objective of those trips we had.
Fishing was another story, we caught a LOT of fish together. I remember trips with just him, but lots of trips with Uncle Ben and Cousin Dave from Colorado. Those were great great times, with the possible exception of having to clean 52 perch that we caught at the coast. That seemed like a long day.
There are many, many more things that I think about when I think of Grandma and Grandpa, but what mostly stands out is not a single bad memory. I honestly can not think of anytime where either of them were mad or angry, I am sure it happened at some point over the course of 8 grandkids, but I couldn’t tell you even one.
I was fortunate to visit Grandpa a few days before he passed away. It was hard. He was uncomfortable and couldn’t get around well. I am not good in those situations and never know what to say. Grandpa’s mind was as sharp as ever though. Most of you know that he and Grandma traveled a lot when he retired. So I asked, as I have a hundred times in the past, where were some of the places you visited (just trying to make some conversation). He rattled off without missing a beat a long list including England, France, Australia, Fiji, Sweden, China and Russia… then he paused, looked me in the eye and said… “I have also been to Cincinnati”.
Thank you all for coming and thank for indulging me while I do this. We will miss Grandma and Grandpa.
Isn't that nice? :)
Among some of these things one thing I really remember is this little ditty Grandpa always would tell us... I think probably close to every time we saw him when we were little.
"One day I went down to the dam, to get some dam water, but the dam man said I couldn't have any dam water, so I told the dam man to keep his dam water."
My mom wouldn't let Greg say that at the memorial service yesterday.... but she didn't say I couldn't put it on my blog!
I'll miss Grandpa and Grandma too, but we will see each other again!
