My grandfather was one of the most "handy" men I have ever in my entire life. You could always find him dressed in the same Dickies coveralls of which he must have had at least 20 sets of at any given time. I can't remember a time that he did not know how to fix ANYTHING that was broken and could build whatever came to his mind, only being limited by his own imagination. I have very fond memories of my Papaw Jimmy teaching me the things he knew, even though I was probably a bit too young to retain most of it. As much as he loved working in his shop, he loved us grandchildren more than life itself. I can't remember a single time that he ever even as much as got stern with any of us. All in all, he was one of the most well-respected, gentle, and kind individuals I have ever had the pleasure of spending any amount of time with.
In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina changed the entire game for the gulf coast. The devastation that I'm sure many people have seen pictures and video of just simply can not accurately portray exactly how much damage this storm actually did. During this time, I was living in the Jackson, MS area which was far enough north to avoid the worst part of it. Being that my grandfather lived in Bay St. Louis, he was not nearly as fortunate. My grandmother and he heeded the evacuation notices and made it to safety in plenty of time; however, their entire home, along with my grandfather's shop and all of it's contents were a total loss despite their home being on 20+ feet "stilts". This, of course, hit my grandparents really hard. Everything they had worked for their whole lives was gone in just an instant. Insurance would obviously take care of most of this, but there are just some things that you can't rebuild. After I'm sure of what was a lot of discussion and debate, my grandparents decided to leave the coast and move much closer to us around the Hattiesburg, MS area. This would be the only positive thing that came from the disaster as we were now able to spend time together more frequently. I will never forget some of those special moments that were enabled by this seemingly horrible situation.
My father consequentially bought a home that was even closer to my grandparents new home, but it was in dire need of a makeover. There was a lot of work to be done including painting the entire house, hanging light fixtures, installing appliances, etc. Having my grandfather there to help with all of that is probably the only reason that all the work ever got finished. The only thing we hit a hitch with was the water dispenser in the door of the refrigerator/freezer. This fridge is extremely large and fits into a space that looks like it was built around it to ensure a perfect fit. There is virtually no space between the wall and the fridge. My grandfather just could not make it work despite trying everything he knew to do. I don't exactly remember how he figured it out, but it ended up being that the last people that lived there took their refrigerator and instead of unscrewing the water line, the lazy bastards just cut it where it came out of the wall. My dad told him not to worry with it as it was going to be way more trouble than it was worth. We drank a lot of bottled water after that.
A few years later, my grandfather was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This was obviously devastating news, but it did not slow my Papaw Jimmy down whatsoever. For as long as he could, I recall that he was just as driven with all of his "projects" as ever before, if not more so. Things started going downhill for him when his sickness and side effects from the subsequent treatments started preventing my grandfather from being the active man that I had always known him to be. He was a proud man, and I just can not imagine how frustrating it must have been to not even be able to bathe yourself after a certain point. With all that said, I just don't ever remember him getting "down" about it, at least not around the grandchildren.
My family, especially my father and grandfather, are die hard New Orleans Saints fans and had been since before my dad can even remember. Until 2009, there wasn't ever a WHOLE lot to cheer about. Before the interior of the Superdome was remodeled, all the seats on the different levels were purposely made different colors so that it would appear that the games were much more "full" than they actually were if that gives you any idea. During football season, there is never any doubt what my family does on Sunday afternoons. We watch New Orleans Saints football. My Papaw Jimmy fought his battle with cancer as long as he could until there was just no more to give. He died the day AFTER the Saints won their first and only Superbowl. His timing could not have been more perfect.
The funeral was fuzzy for me. This was the first major loss that I had ever experienced, and it shook me up pretty badly. I took a few Xanax to try to dull the pain and deal with going to, but there are just some things drugs don't fix. Even temporarily. A lot of people showed up, most of which I hadn't the slightest clue as to who they were, but the majority of them shared that they hadn't seen me,"since I was a baby". The one thing I do remember clearly is the sheer volume of people who had the nicest things to say about my Papaw Jimmy. I remember thinking that I hoped that my funeral would be even half as much filled with love and respect.
We had family and friends and my dad's house after the funeral to celebrate my grandfather's life once more. There was plenty of finger food and lots of what I like to think of as "party snacks". My sister and I were in the kitchen talking to my aunt and cousin respectively when one of my father's friends scoops some ice out of the cooler and proceeds to fill it with water.... from the refrigerator door. I have no idea what I was talking about with my cousin, but when it started dispensing the water, my entire body was frozen with chills. My sister and I locked eyes and she looked as if she'd just seen a ghost, as did I, I'm sure. We go outside to grab a smoke on the front porch a few minutes later. We decide that maybe our father had gotten someone to fix it knowing that people would be coming over. After asking him, this wasn't the case, and when we did, the look on his face was one I'd never seen in my father before and have only seen one other time to this day. We went to go test it ourselves and it was working as if it had never been broken at all and continued to work from that day out. EXTREMELY eerie if nothing else.
Several months after my grandfather passed away, my grandmother's (his wife) health started to deteriorate as well. She took my grandfather's death really toughly, and I can recall her often saying that she felt like her time was coming soon, even before her health started to take a downward spiral. As much as I hated to lose both grandparents on that side of the family in such a short amount of time, I had a lot more comfort with my grandmother's death knowing that her pain would soon be over and she would get to be with her soul mate, my grandfather, very soon. The funeral was similar to my grandfather's and they were buried side by side in our family graveyard. The reception, once again, was held at my father's house with the same faces as the last. Things were normal enough until my uncle asked my dad,"Hey, how do you make the water in the refrigerator work?" The shiver that went up my spine were tenfold of that when the water started working. It has not worked again since that day.
Submitted April 24, 2015 at 09:17PM by BradyBoyd http://ift.tt/1bB2j73 nosleep
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