Our War Veteran, My Papa

My papa and two of his great granddaughters (Baby D and our A), on a warm California afternoon this past July.

This is my Papa.  He is my kids' great grandfather on my mom's side.  He has always been so loving and kind to his grandchildren--he nearly always greets me with a big smile and I have always felt his love for me.  He was the first family member I know of to call me Liz.  When I was little and I would sleep over at his house, I would wear one his big white t-shirts to bed--I loved the smell of them.  Sometimes I would be there when he came home for lunch--he would spread butter evenly on saltine crackers and we would eat soup, saying very little to one another.


When I think of him I think of two words:  duty and hard work.  

When he was nineteen he served in the United States Navy in the Pacific.  (I know I have a photo of him in Japan, I just don't know where it is.) He is the war veteran I know best.  He went to war because it was his duty--he wasn't looking for adventure or tourism or violence.  He does not like talking about World Ward Two, but I have had a few occasions to hear a little bit about it from him.  I know he spent a long time on a cramped ship.  I know he fought on islands.  I once asked him what the hardest part about war was, and he told me that his officers always told him not to look back--not to look back at where he had come from or who had fallen behind him.


It was when he was on a ship in the Pacific that he decided that if he survived he was going to return to California and work on a farm for the rest of his life.  That's what he did.  He has worked everyday, providing for his family as he has taken care of cattle and crops.  He continues to do so today, getting up early to be out at the ranch on time.

On this Veterans Day, I'm so grateful for our veteran's love and the example he has set for his posterity to follow.

D's grandpa is another one of our favorite vets, and I can't find a digital picture of him anywhere!  He was a proud sailor--I'll have dedicate a post to him at another time.