This morning at 7:09am my phone rang, and if you know me you know it’s on Do Not Disturb until 9 just in case the babe sleeps in…so if it’s important you have to call twice for it to ring unless it’s in my hand. There I sat playing with A and my phone lights up and buzzes. My dad.
“Hello”
“Hey Sis, I just was calling to let you know Ed died this morning at 1:40am, I didn’t want to send that to you in a text…”
Ed is my Great Granddad. He’s my step-great-granddad but as far as I’m concerned the step part is truly irrelevant. Ed and my great-grandma have been together for over 30 years, so he has been apart of my whole life. He’s always been there to be supportive, always sent cards and supported fundraisers. He was as real of a granddad as any other. If I’ve learned anything in this life it’s that blood doesn’t mean everything.
After I heard the news, my mind shifted to my grandma and how I know her heart is breaking. She and Ed both lost their first spouses before they found love with one another. They had a fierce kind of love, one full of strong-headedness and the kind of love that makes it through anything. The kind of love a lot of people dream of having. I wish so very much that I could be there with her, just to sit there and be there for her.
My mind then shifted to a fall afternoon where I sat on the couch in their home before making my move to Colorado in 2006. We were sitting there – me on the couch, Ed sitting just across from me and my grandma to his right. We talked about life and we talked about love and my grandma’s giggle filled the air. Oh that giggle, it’s one of my favorite sounds. Ed then said to me something to the tune of,
