| My Grand Dad
This morning, on his 81st birthday, my grand dad passed away.
He was the only grand dad I ever had as my other one died before I was born.
With 81 years you can imagine he's had an interesting life.
He started work in a factory aged 14 years old.
Aged 16 years old he was drafted as a soldier to fight in WWII.
Aged 17 he became a "Malgres nous": forced to fight on the German side against his will. When the Americans came, he (along with others) was put in a jail for a month until they could establish that he was there against his will.
Aged 21 he met my grand mum at a ball, three days later they met again on a date and he proposed to her.
Aged 22 they were married and had their first son. In the next 8 years they had 2 more daughters.
In the late 60s they bought a 'Cafe', the french version of a pub which had its own bowling alley. They worked hard but had a good life there.
Then my grand dad started being a taxi driver at night to help with the finances.
This put a strain on the family life so in 1979 when all their children were married and had a home of their own, my grand parents packed it all in to move to sunny Algeria where my grand dad worked as an electrician.
My parents (and 1 year old me) visited them on holidays and didn't go back home as my dad got a good job there.
We all shared a huge gorgeous colonial era house and embrassed the life there.
My grand dad bought a small motor boat that was used to go fishing tuna and all sorts. He also enjoyed going scuba diving and catching fish with harpoons.
10 years later my grand dad retired so they moved back to France and they bought a derelict longere in Brittany.
Aged over 60 years old, my grand parents (and grand mum's older brother) took the house apart: roof of, walls down stone by stone etc. and over the next few years rebuilt it all by hand themselves with little if any professional help and made it into a gorgeous stone walled property with magnificent features. That's where he spent his last days.
On a more personal level, he was a great wine connaisseur and he enjoyed classical music. He was very clever and quite witty too.
He taught me how to scuba dive and looking at him working on his house I learnt how to lay tiles (aged 11) and a few other things.
As I said before he had 3 children, 6 grand children and 3 great grand children who all love him dearly.
He told my grand mum every day "If only you knew how much I love you". It would have been their 60th anniversary in 5 months time, they so wanted to make it to 60th...
He had been ill (artherosclerosis and heart attacks over the years) for a while but his last words to the doctor who was going to try and save him this morning were "I'm feeling good" before he closed his eyes.
His name is Frederic, he was and "ordinary" man but he was also extraordinary, he was 81 years old today and I'll miss him.
Thanks to anyone who took the time to read about him.
| 
11-09-2009, 10:00 PM
I'll drink to that. x
E. & O.E.
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