My paternal grandfather was a great man, in my eyes, but great nontheless. Born in 1912 he has seen many things like other grandparents have, wars, depression's births and death of their family members. His parents and grandparents migrated north from the war torn south during the civil war, highly against slavery and such they settled in boston and finally moved to worcester with ties on the cape and in boston. Schooled in banking managment he was moving up the corporate ladder when he was drafted at age 32 in 1942 with 3 million other us men.
He was made an officer due to his schooling and high rankin in the banking firm and sent to india, a god awful place he has told me many a time. He was incharge of All incoming food used to suplly the troops us and british during the african and middleeast campaigns, i guess if he could count money and keep it safe, he could do the same with livestock and k-rations. He was redployed as a Colonel to england in 1944 and was incharge of overseeing all the meat inspections and distribution of rations for every division in the european theartre till the end of the war.
He came home and raised a small family, my mom and my uncle and continued working for the federal goverment as head postmaster in boston and then in worcester, he led a simple life and was a happy man, we used to sit and talk about some of the stuff in the war, though he was far from the front, you werent really that far. He showed me alot of pictures of friends and locations he was deployed or visited on leave, alot of the time shedding a few tears, he never returned to europe again.
My dad, what i know of him died in nam in 1970, i was a year old, ive got a few photos of him while home on leave, he did three tours of duty, my mom said he wasnt the same after the 1st tour so he kept going back, anyways, my gramps " I called him Pup " was the stand up guy that helped raised me, taught me everything, fishing, hunting, sports, girls, you name it, everything i am today is because of him and my mom, and i love him dearly for it.....
Pup was sick for a long time, we lost my gram to diabetes back in 95 and i thought for sure that pup wasnt going to be far behind, just like myself and my sister, pup waited on gram hand and foot to make sure she had everything she needed while she was ill. He fell in 2004 and broke a hip, and had to be put in a nursing home for a bit, broke my heart to see that happen, so after i was diagnosed with cancer in 04-05, i sold everything and moved in with my grandfather so he could recover at home and i would have the chance to stay with him, well all in all, both him and i had hard times with our illnesses, he was diagnosed with liver and prostate cancer, and my cancer was putting up a fight, lot of chemo took its toll on me. Around may of 2007 i was doing alot better and was feeling great but pup got worse, dimentia, alzheimers, crapping himself in the middle of the night, being scared all the time, it was ****ing heartbreaking shit to see, he hung on up until december 2nd, he passed with me and our family beside him, giving him the love that he would need to make that final journey. He was married for 55 year, and he passed on his wife's ( my grams birthday ) and was buried december 7th ( pearl harbor ) with full military honors at the age of 95..... A Great Man Indeed.