My grandfather passed away in 2009, as you can see from the picture. I was told that he would be buried somewhere in Michigan, but nothing more. That was the last I heard.
Every so often, when I get some time off, and if I have some spare money, I like to spend a couple days out of town by myself to decompress. For some reason, I realized that I could find where he was buried. A bit of work found his obituary, and I decided I should find where he's buried.
A six hour drive, and I found him.
My feelings for my grandfather are deep and somewhat complex. I wish I had known him better, but what I remember of him is very good. A smart man, happy, loved to read, loved chess. He lived in Florida with his wife, Marian, the entire time I knew him. She was pretty, small, and happy. They both clearly loved each other very much.
A bit of time on Google showed that he'd lived in Florida beginning in 1968, and was there until he died. It's interesting to me that he moved there in 1968 - that's when my parents got married. Was that part of why he moved? When did he retire from the military? What did he do after that, before he moved to Florida?
Marian was his second wife. He and my grandmother divorced when my father was very young. I don't know why, and probably never will. I don't yet know how much time my father spent around him while growing up, but I could (and probably will at some point) ask him, and learn.
I see certain patterns between the lives of my grandfather, my father, and myself. I don't know how much further back these patterns extend, nor if they will continue further into the future. I don't know if these are good, or bad, or neither - they simply are. We're human.
So where am I going with this, and why now? I do think that it's amusing that I'm now at the same age as my grandfather was when he moved to Florida. I can't exactly do that, but in a few years I do plan on leaving the area. Florida? Europe? I don't know. I kind of think I want to put everything in storage and be a nomad for a couple years when the time comes. I can do what I do for a living anywhere the internet exists, so why not? Travel around, work, move on. I haven't seen enough of the world yet. (Of course, whether or not anyone from the US will be able to leave the country in a few years remains to be seen, but I'll deal with that when I get there.)
As far as why now? I've been watching Sons of Anarchy lately, and it deals a lot with how a son deals with the ghosts of his father and the past. Now, I'm not going to up and join a motorcycle gang (though my grandfather did buy a motorcycle when he was 65), but it's just a thing that makes me think.
I'm in Bad Axe, Michigan right now (great name), about half an hour from Gagetown. The only hotel in Gagetown had no rooms, so here I am. I'll be heading back tomorrow. I'll probably swing by the cemetery one last time on my way home.
