My maternal grandparents were a huge part of my life as a child. They spent a lot of time with me, after school and on weekends, treating me like I was the most important person in their world.
My grandfather in particular went out of his way to find the time to be with me. He was my personal taxi service for all of my school years. My grandparents were no different than the kabillions of other grandparents throughout history. Their job was to spoil me, break all the parental rules about diet and bedtime, and send me home when they were done.
Picking me up from school and transporting me home should have taken about 10 minutes. One day, we stopped for forbidden ice cream. I was not allowed to have sugar as a child, and while I see the reasoning in my parent’s thinking, at the time I would have preferred they cut off my right arm and let me eat sugar.
Grandfather was sensitive to my young cravings, and stopped at the local ice cream shop for a scoop of strawberry shortcake ice cream on a sugar cone. I couldn’t have loved him more at that moment.
Needing to come up with a reason why it took us over an hour to get home, (I wasn’t going to rush this rare opportunity), Grandfather said with a wink “We stopped by the hardware store.” Being of deviant intelligence, I got his code and relayed the information to my waiting mother.
The hardware store was our little secret. I adored the hardware store. The invention of cookies and cream flavor notched up my esteem for the hardware store significantly. Grandfather even let me order chocolate sprinkles, which is nirvana on a cone for a ten year old. Whenever he picked me up I would plead for a trip to the hardware store, and being a grandparent, it was virtually impossible for him to say no.
Despite the ridiculous frequency of our hardware trips, my mother never did discover the ruse. I let her in on the secret a few years after he passed away.
Sometimes, when I’m particularly introspective, I take myself to the hardware store and order a scoop of cookies and cream with chocolate sprinkles on a sugar cone. Somehow I don’t feel alone; it feels like he is with me in that flavor. This week, I sat with my treat, and missed the unconditional love my grandfather gave me. Everyone should have someone who loves them like he loved me.
Everyone should get to go to the hardware store.
How blessed you were to have had a relationship like that!
bdrain
May 12, 2009 at 5:59 PM
Your Grandpa, my Great Uncle Paul, was a sweet, funny, tender-hearted man who got the point and knew the secret: Love One Another. We were all blessed to have him in our lives. Glad you got the best of it all!
Laura Esposito
May 12, 2009 at 10:38 PM
The funny thing is I am completely confident that everyone who had a relationship with him got his best. Truly a selfless, generous, blessing of a man. His care taking abilities are still an honor to his legacy. I'm missing him today. I would sit with him in the nursing home while he was dying from painful bone cancer and he would tell me the most fantastic, wonderful stories. Those stories brought the twinkle back to his eye and smiles on everyone's faces. People would gather in the room to witness Paul Aselin with his grandaughter, the unprepared bearer of a name he infused with greatness. I think we all got the best.
Aselin
May 12, 2009 at 10:51 PM