from start to finish

March 6, 2010 marks the date my grandfather left this earth. March 6, 1928 marks the date he entered. Full circle. Beginning and end. Something about dying on your birthday seems like completion.

My grandfather Oscar was not perfect. He was not glamourous. Oscar was a good man. He built his house with his bare hands and paid cash for it as he went along. He and grandma Lorene cooked on a hot plate for themselves and 3 children while they built one house and lived in another.

After my grandparents should have been finished raising children, I came into their lives and they welcomed me as their own.

For a few days I will be posting remembrances of my grandparents and what they mean to me... and the lessons I learned from their example.