Farewell to Gramps

You may remember in a previous post the mention of my Gramps. He passed away at home on the morning of January 5th after a long and eventful life at 91 years old. He truly was one of my hero's and he will be deeply missed. Gramps was not a man of many words. The things he did say were either hilarious or very serious. You always knew where he stood on any issue going on around him. He fought in WWII as a tank gunner and would never share any stories with his family except for the funny ones until his last stint in the hospital. My aunt, his youngest daughter, which many of you may know as Ms. Hayes from Longest Elementary, was staying with him in the hospital the week of Christmas and shared some of the horrible things he saw while fighting in the war. I will not share any of those stories with you but I would like to share one of the funny ones he shared with my Uncle Tom.

I believe it was 1941 in Germany. It was a cold and brutal day and Gramps was the gunner on a tank that headed through a town. The tank was having some type problems that didn't allow the tank to stop like it should. The Germans tried to keep their streets as clean as possible at all times, even through the destruction that was going on all around them. Since he was the gunner, his head was outside the top hatch manning the gun. The tank turned down a street and there was a woman sweeping the street right in their path. Gramps screamed and hollered with all he had to try and get the woman's attention. The Americans always stopped the tanks and allowed people in the streets to finish their business and move on once the path was clear but this tank did not want to stop. The woman heard the tank but could not hear Gramps over the noise of the tank. The tank came within about 5 feet of her when she finally turned around and was able to move out the way. The driver of the tank was desperately trying to get it stopped as soon a they saw her and finally did after nearly running over her. Gramps heard the woman screaming at them once the tank was stopped in German and no idea what she was saying. He bowed his head and closed his eyes and thanked God that they didn't run over her. During his prayer, he noticed that woman's voice seemed to be getting louder. He turned his head just in time to catch a broomstick across the face. The woman was so angry, she climbed onto the tank commenced to giving Gramps what he called the beating of his life. He did not fight back. He let her finish and told her he was sorry. He didn't know whether she understood him or not. He told my uncle that not only was in the worst beating he ever had, it was his favorite!!

That was the kind of man Gramps was. I wish you all had the chance to meet him. He was one of kind. May he rest in peace.