Family loss can bring family joy

It’s been three weeks since we said goodbye to Grandpa Joe (GJ), but I’ve been so buried with work that I haven’t had a chance to write about it, or anything else for that matter. Fortunately we (my mom, sister, husband, and my little guy) were able to say goodbye to him in person last month. We just had no idea he was going to heaven so soon after that trip.

We had been planning a June So.Cal trip for several months to visit an old college buddy who was in the states on vacation. GJ had been battling diabetes for as long as I could remember, but the past few years we've had a few BIG scares, so since we were planning to be in OC (where GJ lived), we knew it was important to see him – and introduce him to his Great Grandson.

I hadn’t been close to GJ in some time, but whenever I had the opportunity to spend time with him, his smile and laughter were contagious. He was always the happy go lucky grandpa. The only down side was that his relationship with family sometimes felt like – out of sight, out of mind. I know he loved all of us grandkids, and it was probably not intentional, but he wasn’t one to remember birthdays, or initiate a get-together, or even pick up the phone just to say hi. But I have to admit – as I got older, I was just as much to blame for the distance.

However, when we did all get together, we always had a great time. I can remember spending hours putting coins in his little slot machine - and sometimes he'd even let me keep the money if it hit the jackpot. We’d spend hours running around his backyard, and we can't forget the Mercedes...ironically I own one now, but when I was a little girl, I remember thinking I was the coolest thing to hit the San Fernando Valley - rolling around in the back seat of his car. He loved his El Pollo Loco and God did he have a sweet tooth. He was a stinker though – always using the grandkids as a way to fulfill that urge for sugar, asking us to bring him something he knew he shouldn't be eating, knowing we couldn't tell grandpa, "NO!"

His battle with diabetes had been ongoing for many years, and there were multiple occasions when we just weren’t sure he was going to make it...but he always did – that is until recently. I think the shock of him being gone was even harder to deal with because no matter how sick he would get, or how high is blood sugar was, he would always rebound...it was almost like he was invincible.

As surreal as it was to say bye to him, losing GJ did provide the family with a joyous day together on July 3. It was a day to celebrate his life and to get past, the past - a real opportunity to move forward as a family – and that is what all of us did.

We hadn’t planned to make the trip back south since we had been there only a few weeks prior, but I’m so glad we did. Isaac got to meet his great aunts, and uncles, second, third, fourth cousins – shoot, Mark even met some of the family he had never met before. We will miss you GJ, but can’t thank you enough for bringing the family together after so many years a part.