1.Thank you for loving me so much that you always took time out for me

2.Thank you for giving me the tools, scraps, and freedom to experiment with my own little projects beside you in the garage

3.Thank you for adding bonds to my savings each year since before I could say your name, let alone understand what that meant

4.Thank you for teaching me to delight in homegrown food before I figured out that not all food came from grampa’s or dad’s garden

5.Thank you for growing the sweetest sweetcorn I have ever tasted (and ever expect to taste) in my life.  No one can beat the way you roast it over the fire.

6.Thank you for actually encouraging me to “harvest” the berries by poking them into my mouth.  Your strawberries and raspberries, still warm from the sun and bursting on my tongue, remain the measure with which I judge all berries….. and I don’t think I’ve had a decent one since you lived on 53 (which also strangely coincides with the last time I had your berries -lol)

7.Thank you for your way of telling stories.  You always choose the right time and you take your time and you bring us back to the time.  They’re almost always new stories that we never heard and could never have imagined until you shared them.

8.Thank you for your hugs and your profoundly genuine words of encouragement

9.Thank you for a million cherished memories that I will never be able to capture or contain in one place…. times at the woods, shelling popcorn, helping make homemade ice cream at the convent, driving the mower, taking care of the kitties, riding bikes, skating, PLAYING CARDS, and… no one who has had them could forget- your grilled breakfast potatoes.  Yum.

10.Thank you for the man you are, Grandpa.  You have been an amazing influence in my life and I am blessed to be your granddaughter.

Love,

Lucy