I miss these two. I was around Anna's age when they both passed away and as I've gotten older I've had an overwhelming longing to be able to talk with them now- to hear their stories, their views on life, and why they chose to live so simply and give so much to others.
I hate that. When you're young, you have no understanding of the value that comes with spending time with the elderly. They were simply the ones that greeted me at the end of the hallway, as I ran what seemed a great distance to their apartment door. They were the ones that would give me duck food (aka bread) and then laugh as I went onto their balcony and threw whole pieces of bread down at the ducks below- eating more myself than I let fall down.
They were the two who kept an old tin full of cookies above the refrigerator, the two who had a variety of colorful soaps that laid in a basket on the floor of their bathroom. The two who fought like cats and dogs but loved each other dearly. The two who only ever called me Kelly Marie.
She was the one who let me try on all of her old jewelry, who had an antique doll collection, who loved to read, and would always sing Hickory Dickory Dock to me. She was the one who would yell at me to get my feet off of her coffee table, but would laugh a second later when I would fall to the floor and say "I've fallen and I can't get up."
He was the one who would sit me up on the kitchen table and let me pull his suspenders back and snap them back onto his chest, pretending that it hurt so that I would laugh. He was the one who had excellent carpentry skills, who could make train gardens, cupboards, and rocking chairs. He was the one who would make me three-corner hats made out of newspapers and rings made out of dollar bills. He was the one who always wanted salami and cheese as a Christmas stocking stuffer, who you had to yell loudly to so that he could hear you. He was the one who always told me "Don't be afraid because I will always be with you" and to be "a leader not a follower."
These are simple memories, but I hold them dear. As I've grown, I've paid more attention to the stories my father and grandmother have told about them and as I said before, I long to be able to spend time with them today. They were two genuinely unselfish and loving people that I am proud to call my great grandparents.
