Grandpa

When we went back during summer, JC's grandpa,( Joe's dad) was stricken with cancer. We found out about 2 or 3 weeks before heading home for summer that he had cancer. A week or so after we came back to Hong Kong, we had news that he went home to the Lord.

I told Babe that it's kinda sad that JC wouldn't really get to know her grandpa or remember him. Babe turned around and said, what's the big deal, he never got to know his grandpas too. But to me, it's a big deal. When I look back at my childhood, I remember my grandpas really well. I had a great childhood hanging out with them. My maternal grandpa went home with the Lord when I was 10 and my paternal grandpa passed on when I was 18.

My maternal grandparents have only 5 grandchildren and therefore we got more attention from them. I've more memories of my maternal grandpa than my sisters as I'm the oldest. My maternal grandpa probably gave me the love of animals. I remember hanging out with him in his backyard sorting out his bird feed. He was also the one that introduced guinea pigs to us. I also remember playing those IQ puzzles with him. Those memories are really precious. And even now, I strongly believe that he probably had an influence on us wanting to adopt.

My paternal grandparents have maybe 20 or more grandchildren. But I still got to spend some one to one time with my grandpa. He didn't speak English like my maternal grandpa. He didn't even speak Mandarin. He spoke Teochew. As kids were used to love to hang out in his room playing our board games while he watched telly and listened to his radio at the same time. And our aunties and uncles would chase us out of his room because he was smoking. But still the same, we loved to hang out with him. There's so many memories of him. He would yelled at everyone but deep down in him, we knew that he loved everyone of his grandchildren.

I missed my grandpas. When I look back, I'm glad that I had the chance to get to know my grandpas. It's such a shame that JC wouldn't get to know her grandpa. But I'm sure that her parents would share stories of him with her. I know that we live 3 and half hours of plane ride away from Josias's grandparents and it is hard for him to get to know them. But I guess, this is something that we have to live with for a while.