1 wedding, 5 kids, 5 grandkids and a massive heart attack later, they are celebrating their 50th anniversary. There are a million reasons why I love both of them, but on this special occasion I would like to list a few:
Grandpa:
He instilled in me a love for all things University of Utah. That may seem silly to most, but it is something I am passionate about and that I love to share with him. Some of my fondest/earliest memories with my Grandpa involve football or basketball games at the U. I specifically remember the football game where it rained the whole time and I was in nothing but red biker shorts and an oversized Utah T-shirt (it was the early 90’s, okay?). Being a 7ish year old girl I was really bored for most of the game. It was crappy weather and we weren’t any good back then, but we stayed the whole entire game. I don’t recall the score or who it was against, but I know we ended up coming back and winning in the last minutes. I remember being there with just grandpa and standing on my seat next to him, both of us screaming and cheering for our team. I remember feeling so excited that they won and I am pretty sure that day is when I truly became a diehard U of U fan. Grandpa is a man of few words most of the time, but you know he loves you from the little things; helping you with school, giving you a treat and an accompanying hand-written note every Valentine’s day, buying Buzz (now the Bees) season tickets when you went through your baseball phase, and the list goes on and on. He will never ask for a hug, but when you are 26 and still give him one as you leave his face lights up every single time. He has one of the most contagious smiles you have ever seen. Also, his name is Melvin Eugene. Come on, that is awesome!
Grandma:
She is one of the physically strongest ladies you will ever meet. I like to think that is due in part to the fact that she grew up on an Indian reservation in Canada. That is pretty hard core. We constantly have to stop her from doing things that her old body can’t keep up with such as carrying in 20 lbs bags of rock salt or doing manual labor up at the cabin. She is way more motivated at 76 than I am at 26. I always loved school shopping with my Grandma every fall. She made sure we kept up with the latest fashions and you can blame her introducing me to JCrew. I also might get my off colored sense of humor from her. This may come as a surprise to anyone who knows her, but she can crack a dirty joke right along with the rest of us, which is even funnier coming from a sweet old lady. I love that she “went with” a majority of the men around her age in Cardston when she was young. It may be a small town, but go Grandma! She also held the record for most points scored in a Girl’s Basket Ball game at her High School (she may still hold that title, I haven’t checked my Cardston High School stats in the last 10 years). I love that she met my Grandpa while he was holding the drinking fountain for her, and that she thought he was pompous because she was an engaged woman; I love even more that she broke off that engagement and mailed the ring back to that poor sucker. To recap, she dated a majority of the town of Cardston and called off an engagement by mailing the ring back. Grandma had game (a trait I clearly did not inherit from her).
Both of these incredible people have made me the awesome girl that I am today, and to that I thank them!
No comments:
Post a Comment