Last night my wife and I received a called that her grandfather had passed away. After the initial sadness I started to think about this man and his life and WOW what a life he had. I certainly hope I can look back someday and have even half the life he had. He was 89 years old and was married to his wife for 68 of those years. He served in WW2 and got married while on leave for a few days. He retired at 58 years old and enjoyed more than 30 years without the stress of work life. The last 12 years of his life he lived in his dream home. He bought a nice home near Sacramento Ca. on a golf course where he was able to sit on his pourch and watch the golfers. He had two children and three grandchildren and without having to work he was able to have his grand kids out every summer for week long visits as they grew up.
I only met him once, two years ago, but man was he a treat to talk too. I got to hear about stories of growing up around the depression time, about proudly serving his country, and about how he called his girlfriend when he found out about having a few days of leave before shipping out and asked her to meet him in Reno to get married.
This is a sad time for our family as they've lost an important part of it but I found myself smiling a few times as I thought about his life. What a life it was. I certainly hope mine is even half as great to look back on some day.