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Veterans Day With Gramps

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OneShot1kill

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Well as some of you guys know my gramps is my hero. He was living with us up until this past spring when it just became to much and to dangerous for him to be without 24/7 care. Unfortunately some of the local assisted living places were just astronomical price wise starting around $11,500 a month for the care he needs. We found him a nice place about 25 minutes from us in PA that's affordable and the care they provide is incredible. Although life gets busy I make sure to see him a minimum of 3 to 4 times per week and have sacrificed a lot of hunting time to make sure I can get there after work and before he goes to bed but in the grand scheme of things hunting means nothing to me compared to cherishing the time I have left with him. Every Veterans Day I get him red white and blue flowers and make sure he gets some of his favorite things and today was no different. I left my house at5 am, worked all day, drove all over the state but made it to see him in time! We talked about the war and as usual I listened intently and documented everything in a journal that I keep of his stories and just thoughts in general about life and what he went through. It's fascinating getting inside the mind if a man of his caliber and sad at the same time as almost everyone he's ever known or been close with is gone. He was in good spirits today though and lived his flowers, enjoyed his Coca-Cola , eggplant parm sub and Hershey bar I brought him. A big thanks to all the vets out there for there sacrifices and if you have a loved one who is getting up there in age make sure you cherish every last minute. Happy Veterans Day.
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
It's one of those things. He said a few days after the invasion someone came across a wooden crate of rations and inside was a case of Hershey bars. Since that day eating a Hershey bar is something special for him ha.
 
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#9 ·
Nice job having your priorities straight! Next time you see him give him s high five from 06roadking and tell him thanks!
 
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#10 ·
you're a good kid. Thank you to your grandpa for his selfless service to this country
 
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#12 ·
Awesome!
 
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#17 ·
Great to see this stuff. Enjoy all of that time while you still can. Today makes 15 years that my grandfather died, and I still miss him every single day. He was a great man, and a true War Hero as well, as an officer under Creighton Abrams (Yes THE Creighton Abrams) in the 4th Armored Division, 37th Tank Battalion. I can still see him smiling, sitting in my parent's house and laughing as he told one of his many amazing stories. I wish I had the forethought to write things down or record him, because sadly, most of those memories are lost forever.
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
Thanks guys. I have certainly never taken a moment of time wth him for granted. For years he never spoke of the war or at the atrocities he witnessed , it was only to me he spoke of these things around when I turned 11 or so. He would always start with war is hell and I'm telling you things I did and witnessed so they are never forgotten and hopefully never repeated. I am blessed to have been able to travel back to Normandy with him and trace his path, while we where there in a town called bayeux , a place they held up for a few days after the invasion word spread quickly there was a GI in town and he had landed there on d day. What we witnessed next was something I will never forget as long as I live. We woke up one morning and in the lobby of the hotel was piles and piles of gifts from the towns people for my grandfather, people were so grateful for what he had done and this was 60 years or so later at the time. The mayor of the town arranged a vigil and he spoke to the entire town , it was an incredibly emotional expierience . A women spoke to him who was in her teens during the time of the invasion and remembered the GIS coming into town and her father had housed some of them. We walked the beaches, saw the small towns he fought through and ended up in Paris where he remembered shooting holes in casks of champagne and filling there helmets and chasing it with cognac on VE Day. I have documented everything through video, journals, had him speak into a recorder, have his journal that he carried with him from the day he left until the day he returned. He still has shrapnel in his knee from a German grendade and a piece of a rifle round in his collar bone that ache in bad weather but he says the pain reminds him of what shaped him and turned him into a man. I once watched my grandfather punch a guy in the face and through him over a bar in Brooklyn when he said the holocaust never happened and it was war propaganda. Out of everything he has been through and seen walking through the gates of Dachau is something that wakes him almost every single night to this day screaming . He says the lives he took from long distance to close combat and everything else he did and saw, what he saw at that concentration camp made him loose faith in humanity for a long time .
 
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OneShot1kill
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