A dedication

I got my application signed after much petitioning at the office today. And my car decided to stop working at the school. It's fixed now, don't worry.

I think I would like to dedicate my post to my grandfather who passed last Thursday. It might be boring...or whatever...but it is what I would like to do.

When I was a kid I had...well issues...attending day care or preschool. So my parents would drop Amanda and me off at my grandparents' house for the day. We played games and made a wonderland out of that house. My grandma was the queen and we would run around and play with her. And then there was my grandfather. He didn't say much and I was quite scared of him. He had this recliner that no one was allowed to sit on but him. He had a gruff voice and when he did speak, I could barely understand him. He did not fit in my version of a wonderland.

But I grew up and I started to hear stories about my grandfather. Wonderful stories. I mean he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. He was a civil rights activist! That scary man. So I started seeing him differently. His quiet no longer disturbed me as drew the parallel with my father's quiet. And if I listen to his gruff voice, I could understand what he said. They were beautiful words, too, always filled with kindness.

He got his high school diploma at the beginning of my sophomore year. They gave them to veterans who couldn't complete high school. I just remember how proud he was to receive it. He gave a speech that was a bit incoherent but entirely sincere nonetheless. The summer after this he was honored at our family reunion. He gave another, very long, speech. He talked about how proud he was that my father went to college, as he was the first and only from his family to go. And that my father's daughters, my sisters and me, were going to college too and that we were going to do great things.

We saw him the day before he died. He looked terrible. He couldn't see us, and they told us he couldn't remember anybody. But my dad told him, "Look, it's Candace." And he grabbed Candace's hand and looked at her. He started speaking for the last time. He said something we couldn't understand. But I thought it was just beautiful that he recognized her.

People are coming from all over to see my grandfather's funeral. I didn't even know a person could know all these people. But it seems the man I thought was scary when I was kid, was actually a man that changed hundreds of lives. He changed my life. He'll be an inspiration to me, and you can be sure my kids will hear the stories I heard and inspired me to be the kind of person my grandfather was.

How beautiful life can be.

-Brianna