birthday thoughts part two

i just found this picture of me with my grandpa and grandma dornan from the same birthday party mentioned in the last post. it was especially meaningful because i am alot like my grandpa in that i don't like to go out to alot of functions. grandma would always come to events but not grandpa, and that was ok i understood. but he showed up with grandma to my birthday party and the moment was never lost on me that he was there.

grandpa passed away a couple months ago. i never had the relationship with him where you wanted to go down there every weekend and play as a kid, and i didn't talk to him every 3 or 4 days but i always knew he loved me. he had a hard life and could be on the rough side sometimes but he came out pretty good for the life he had. raised a family, always supported them and for all time was by my grandmas side.

i don't think that grandpa had role models like athletes, musicians, actors or anything like that. he was a blue collar, hard working man that wasn't awed or wowed by people. he understood that everyone put their pants on one leg at a time in the morning and that he was no lower than someone else just because he didn't have alot of money or fancy things.

and when he got sick the last few years of his life i saw something amazing. he never claimed to be a religious man (although shortly before he passed my cousin asked if he believed in God, he smiled, chuckled and said yes, yes i do) but i saw this kind of a peace come over him that i don't know how many other people noticed. for all the times that i saw him , talked to him, or heard from other family, he wasn't a guy to say "why me?" or freak out in denial. he understood that we all are born, live a life and die. there is nothing wrong with it, it's all part of the deal.

what i really admire about the guy is even the way that he wanted his funeral and death handled. he was cremated and there was no visitation OR funeral. no fuss, just the way he wanted it. honestly i can't blame him and have often thought similar thoughts about my demise.

i probably can't explain my grandpa to you guys but just trust me, i loved him and learned alot more from him about life while he was dying then i ever realized.

my name is christopher delbert dornan
my grandpa is delbert dornan

for years i was embarrassed of that middle name.
but now i'm just embarassed at my shame of that name.