Grandfather

My grandfather from Venezuela died yesterday evening August 19, 2010. It hurts that I couldn't hold his hand as he died. I would have retold him the story of Jesus and held his hand with my little girls caressing him. He only got to meet my oldest daughter when she was about 1yr old. It has been too expensive to fly out to Venezuela. We never saved for a time like this.

My grandmother is still alive. I don't know how much time she has left. I hope I get to go to her funeral, even if I have to leave my girls behind with my sister. I don't know. The plane tickets are $1,300.00 a piece. I need to start praying right now that I could go with my girls so that my grandmother could meet them. It is such a sad thing when a loved one dies.

My grandfather didn't have much money but he never came home from errands empty handed. He always had gum or candy for me and my cousin. And every time the ice cream man walked by jingling his bells my grandfather always bought us a little cup of ice cream.

I remember he would sit on the patio in his rocking chair. I was little and I wondered what he was chewing on; he used to tell me he was eating cockroaches. It was really chewing tobacco. He would spit that stuff out and then he would offer me "his bag of cockroaches". I would always refuse. My uncles would be out there on the patio with him and smoking there cigarettes helping him fool with me some way.

Oh but I sure miss him. I wish I would have gotten to hang out with him some more in his old age. The last time I went my oldest was 1yr old and I would sit out there on that patio with him and be silent but try to spark up a conversation with him. He was too old to really converse with well.

It just would have been nice if he would have met my other daughters and seen how my oldest had grown. I hope not to have to repeat this same grief with my grandmother.

By the way my grandparents are real hamick lovers. I got this most recent picture of him in his hamick. Thank God I have this picture.

Jose- Luis Ledesma

You can also see my grandmother in her hamick here. It was a post I did of her several weeks ago but I later added the picture because I didn't have it at the time of the original posting.


May the only wise God grant you His wisdom for every part of your life.