Goodnight to My Hero

So, this is my first effort at maintaining a blog and you'll all have to bear with me as it gets up and running. I promise that the general tone of this blog will be happy and fun and I will do my best to transfer my experiences on this trip and beyond into entertaining words, but I do have to start with a somber subject. If you are not big on somber reading than check back in for my next post, which will hopefully happen sometime in San Francisco and not be posted from Philadelphia tonight (my flight to Philly from Logan is presently delayed 2 hours, which has me landing after my flight to SF takes off. Damn connecting flights and damn US Air and United. This should be exciting.)

On Monday afternoon between 11:30 AM and 1:00 PM, my grandfather passed away. He had been through a lot in his life: 3 heart attacks and spending the past year living with a respirator to aid his breathing (though he still did all his own shopping and took care of himself up until his last day). My thoughts can't help but be with him right now as I prepare to cross the Equator for the first time, an Equator which he crossed on numerous occasions while serving on Coast Guard and Navy ships in World War II and beyond. I think my grandfather deserves to be known a bit more by my friends and family because he may have shaped me into the person I am more than any one individual. I hadn't seen him since Easter weekend 2005, and that will stay with me as one of my great regrets. Do not take anything in this life for granted. Check in with the people in your life that you haven't seen in a while.

In 5th grade my class was assigned to write about our hero. At that point in my life, I hadn't really considered if I had a hero and sat down to think about the question at hand. But, I quickly determined, that if I did have a hero, the hero had to be someone in my life and not some celebrity or athlete. I knew that my hero had to have had an effect on my life. I knew that my hero was my grandfather. Reflecting on him this week, I came to realize just how much he meant to my childhood and to my present personality. He reduced every moment into a one-on-one conversation, no matter how many people were in the room, and even at a young age I could tell that he worked hard to make everyone in his presence comfortable. While these are not life-changing or awe inspiring characteristics normally associated with hero, they have had a great effect in how I try to treat people, and for that I am proud. My grandfather was smiling and outgoing while I was still a shy a little boy, and as I think about my growth as an individual I begin to notice that subconsciously I have attempted to emulate a number of the personality traits that made him so great and so easy to look up to. I applied for admission at the Coast Guard Academy, because he had retired from the Coast Guard (can anyone imagine me as a Coast Guard officer?! Yikes! Thank goodness I got thin-lettered from there!)

Last night I drove down to the Cape to have dinner with my parents and my brother Jeff before I took off for my trip. Because of my flights I wasn't going to be able to make the services for my grandfather and I wanted to at least spend a couple hours face to face with my family to help my grieving and maybe to help theirs. As we were getting ready to eat, my dad said that during the service everyone was going to have the opportunity to share a single word which they felt best described my grandfather. My mind quickly processed the situation, and before my mom could even finish saying that I should think of a word and that they could share the word at the services the next day, my mind was made up.

"I already know my word"
"Really? What is it"

With a slight dryness in my throat: "Hero"

Goodnight Grampy.