Posted by Gregg, for Eric VanWinkle, in honor of Victor Gene VanWinkle (picture taken on the day of my wedding. My Granfather is on the far left).
Not too long ago I was at my dad's house. He asked me if I had taken a moment of silence the day before. I was confused. Then he pointed at the urn that my grandfather's ashes are in. It had been a whole year. It was amazing to me how fast a year went by and how life moved along just the same without him.
His name is Victor Gene VanWinkle. Many people knew him as "Geno". We called him "Pappy". Pappy could often be found drinking coffee at the Milan Hy-vee. Even still when I drive by that Hy-vee my first thought is "maybe Pappy is in there" and then I am hit the reality that he his not
(By the way, if you have never taken the time to sit back and listen to a bunch of old men sit around and drink coffee, you need to. You may actually learn somthing about life.).
Pappy didn't have much to do in his older days so he would drive around town and just pop in on the people that he knew. For me it usually seemed to be at an inconvenient time. Only because I was (still am) always busy (and of coarse he was not). The dialoge always went like this. "Hey Pappy what's going on?" and (guaranteed) with a smile on his face he would say "I came all the way over here just to see You."
Today I would love to be incovenienced and to hear "I came all the way over here just to see You."
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