I miss you so

I wish you were here to read these words, though I know you can feel their imprint upon my heart.

What an amazing man you are, I’m sure the best there has ever been.

How blessed I have been to know you, to live in the echoes of your eternity.

I’ve been walking around in a daze, stricken by this loss,

But my every heartache is peppered with the truth of your blessings.

I remember so many phone calls, “Pawpaw, what does this mean?”

And the ever present, “Well, hold on, let me get the book.”

The entirety of my vernacular can be put down to your dictionary.

Thank you for instilling a love of language.

Every weekend trip to the latest haunted hotel, long stretches of roadway scored by Poe and Noyes.

Each lunar cycle will ever crest with a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.

These are all true and pretty words, not one of which will give you back to us,

But hopefully will remind (even just me) that you live on in the pieces of yourself that you gifted us with.

The somewhat too assured, stubborn pride; the quirky sense of humor, and love for all things Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The steadfast love and strength you gave as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and great.

I couldn’t have hand picked a better person to fill the shoes my own father left behind.

The lessons of love, respect, and grammar that you taught to me will be with me always.

(As will the surety that I am never wrong.)

Thank you for the gift you have been.

I love you with all of my heart.