Saturday, January 03, 2009

Au revoir Papi

A new light shines, another one extincts. Such is the circle of life. Within long days expecting the arrival of my little one, I had to say goodbye to my grandfather Papi Jacques.

At 93 and three quarters, he lived his life well, a happy, placid, loving man. Always known him to be in good health and intellectually active, I never beat him at scrabble and God knows we played. Okay I might have won once but only by a couple of points.

I am not sad, I was lucky enough to make the most of the last few years I've been back in Europe, visited him a lot, played lots of scrabble games, had nice long chats about faith and his WWII experience and his love story with my grandma, which was his favourite topic of conversation. I also keep many memories of him from the last 30-odd years. I knew to make the most of it after I suddenly lost my other grandpa, Papi Nono, who left so unexpectedly and I do miss him - mostly because I never took the time for quality time with him, a mistake I knew not to repeat with Papi Jacques. So now he's gone, he's in a better place, he remembered right till the end that I was going to give him his eighth great-grandchild which made him happy as he was very keen on a big descendance. So now it's only up to her...

Christmas 2006. In 2007 he started looking tired and well, there was no Christmas 2008 for him.

Noel 2006, il commence a fatiguer a Noel 2007 et y'a malheureusement pas eu de Noel 2008 pour lui.
Une vie commence, une autre s'etteint... Enfin pas necessairement dans cet ordre la. En effet, mon papi Jacques est parti dans les jours ou l'on attend avec impatience l'arrivee de la petite cherie.

A l'age de 93 ans 3/4 il a vecu une belle vie, pleine d'amour et de succes. Un homme placide, intellectuel, avec une foix inebranlable.

Je ne suis pas triste, parce que j'ai eu la chance de bien profiter de tous mes moments avec lui. Apres avoir soudainement perdu mon autre grand-pere, Papi Nono, qui me manque terriblement, je me suis juree de profiter au maximum de papi Jacques et de passer autant de bons moments avec lui que j'en aurai l'opportunite. Et donc, on aura passe de longues heures a jouer au scrabble ou il me battait plus souvent que moi et a ecouter ses histoires de guerre et d'amour, a quel point il a aime ma grand mere toute sa vie... Enfin, maintenant il est parti je suis un peu decu qu'il n'ai pas vu la derniere addition a sa lignee, mais il s'est souvenu jusqu'a la fin qu'il attendait un huitieme arriere petit enfant, ce dont il etait tres fier, maintenant, il ne lui reste plus qu'a arriver a la petite 8eme!

9 comments:

Jeannie said...

I'm sure you will miss him. I am glad you were able to spend lots of time with him.

LisennBreizh said...

Le principal est qu'il ait eu une vie bien remplie !!!
Toute mes condoléances.

tweetey30 said...

That is sad Helene. Hope you have all the good memories you want of him.. I know I remember my grandmother and great great grandmother..

The Zombieslayer said...

I have one living Grandmother and you can only guess how much I regret not spending enough quality time with my other Grandparents. It's not something you can have back.

I'm glad you spent some good times with him. He played a mean game of Scrabble, huh? I like him already. :)

93 is a full life. I'm shooting for 90.

My Grandmother still plays a sharp game of bridge. Hasn't lost a step.

It's just too bad he didn't make it to see his eighth great-grandchild. Wow that would have been something.

Anonymous said...

i m sorry to hear about your grandpa. but you have such a nice & sweet memories of him. i never had opportunity to know both my grand fathers..:(..you take care.

Sweeti said...

Maybe he'll be your baby's spirit guide in this world of ours. I can hardly wait for you to have her.

Tifenn said...

Le passage de relais...d'une belle façon! allez, on l'attend cette petite!

Rockstar Mom said...

I am so sorry Helene. But I do believe your baby girl now has an assigned guardian angel.

S.M. Elliott said...

I'm so sorry. Seeing my grandparents get older has been difficult for me, and I don't look forward to the day when they won't be with us anymore. My grandmother has Alzheimer's and my grandfather prostrate cancer.
Thank God you were blessed to have your Papi in your life and to enjoy the time you had with him!