I know very little about Daddy's family. I knew Grandma.
I knew one aunt and uncle. Their children (my cousins) were a lot older than me and treated me like a doll. I of course loved it.
There was so little I knew about my father's family. There were other aunts and uncles that I saw only once or twice. Some had died before I was born.
Grandma had brothers and a sister who lived in town. I would not have known the brothers if I passed them in the street. The sister did not like children. If Mom drove Grandma to see her sister we had to play down the street from her house.
I also had one aunt who made her "duty" visit to her mother every year. She never had children. I think she did not like us much. The feeling was mutual.
Grandma was not a nice person. I loved her but did not like her.
My grandfather died a few years before I was born. I had never even seen a picture of him.
Imagine my joy when I found his picture online. I finally know what Grandpa looked like.
I know he drank. The last time my father saw his father they argued. Daddy told his father that he was done fighting to stick up for his father.
Daddy went and joined the Navy. When his father died Daddy's ship was under radio silence in the Pacific during World War II. He always regretted not bring able to fix things with Grandpa.
Grandpa had one sister as far as I knew. She lived in California and had no contact with the family.
You would think that coming from such a fractured family Daddy would have made a fractured family of his own. Instead he was a loving and nurturing father,
If any of us had an event Daddy was a chaperone. When my brothers were in Little League baseball he did not coach. He did not want people to think he was playing favorites. Instead he umpired for all the teams.
If we were attending a new school Daddy went with us to enroll. We all knew he loved us. The things he did were because he enjoyed being there for us.
A friend once asked me (long after Daddy died) what I would change with my father if I had the chance to go back. He was very surprised that I had nothing to change. There were seven children. We all felt the same.
Daddy loved us. We loved him.
