He'll roll lots of easter eggs your way...

All while I was growing up, my grandfather insisted the family get together twice a year: Christmas Eve and New Years. And we did. We 'd go to my grandparents house, they'd be there, their kids, their spouses, and us grandkids. On Christmas Eve, we'd have a meal, and exchange gifts. On Easter, we'd have a meal and an Easter egg hunt.

First, we hunted real eggs. they we hunted plastic eggs filled with pennies, and then filled with dollars, and then filled with candy. But no matter what we looked for, Pap always had a hard boiled egg specially painted for each of us grandkids.

All but his last year with us. By then, he was living in the adult care facility, paralyzed from the waist down. But nonetheless, he insisted on being brought back to his house on Easter. It wasn't easy for my uncles to get him from the car to the wheelchair to the couch, but we did it. And as we kids (me, the oldest grandkid, then 30 years old) looked for those plastic Easter eggs, he sat in the wheelchair and watched us, smiling. He didn't get to color any eggs for us that year. And in November, he died. After his death, for a few years we'd get together at my grandmother's. Then we moved it to my uncle's for the last few years.

Each year, since his death, I made hard boiled eggs at Easter, sometimes to make deviled eggs for the family stuff. But I always colored one egg and took it to Pap's grave and left it there, in honor of him.

This past Easter, since I had the flu, I was, for the first time in my 40 years, unable to be with my family at Easter. And it's also the first time in 10 years that I didn't take an egg to pap's grave. I mentioned all this to mom today, and she said I had a good reason for not doing either: I had a fever, after all. And she's right.

But still, since I couldn't get an egg to his grave, I hope I'm honoring Pap enough by writing about it now. And the photo is oen I took last year.

POLT Listening to nothing

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. - Sinclair Lewis