Farewell, Grandpa, and thanks for the motor!

This June, my family lost a father, grandfather, and great-grandfather after a short series of strokes. It hasn't been the same to be at the farm without him, and going into the house is just too quiet. The good news is that he's with Grandma again, arguing up a storm over a game of cards, to be sure.

A while back, when Grandpa was still alive, my dad had been cleaning some things out of his garage with his supervision. Curt was there at the time, and he noticed an old boat motor sitting around that looked like it hadn't been used in years. When he asked Grandpa if he could have it, Grandpa gave some usual response, like, "Oh, shit! That old piece of shit? Sure, you can take the God-damned thing, but good luck getting it to work! It's yours if you want it!" So for the next long while, it sat in our pole barn, untouched. Then, this spring, Curt finally obtained an old boat that had been sitting at his grandpa's place, also unused for years. He was beyond excited at this point and immediately got my grandpa's old motor to a shop to get it repaired. We had forgotten about it for a while, and then Grandpa had his first stroke and went into the hospital. On the same day that he died, Curt got a call from the shop, saying the motor was fixed and ready to go. Curt shared the story at Grandpa's funeral, which was very moving.

Unfortunately, things didn't go so smoothly after that. When we brought the boat out to the lake for a first run, it was leaky, and the motor wouldn't work. We were so disappointed, most of all Curt, who had already put a lot of time and effort into this project. But he's ambitious and a hard worker, so he got right back to it. After taking more time to affix some new benches and seats, cleaning, painting, and working on the motor till he figured out the problem and solved it, we were finally able to go out for a cruise on the lake last week. The boys had a good time, and it was so special to be in the boat that used to belong to Curt's grandpa, using the motor that used to belong to my grandpa to run it. Of course I cried for the first few minutes while we cruised around the lake, thanking Grandpa for what ended up being this gift to our family. It seemed to be a fitting farewell.