very simple

Reading Lisa’s entry about her grandmother really struck a chord with me. I had a similar experience last year, when my grandfather passed away. My mom was an only child, and she passed away in 1999, so I was pretty much the designated "responsible" person (not to mention the fact that it was the day before Christmas, so my dad and my brother were both on vacation far, far away and couldn’t get back to the east coast in time). My grandfather’s youngest brother, his son and I flew down to Florida to deal with everything. Going through the apartment was like a time capsule. My grandfather saved everything. Every single check he had ever written? in the breakfront. antique German guns from WWII? hidden in the ceiling. suitcases full of photographs? everywhere. My cousin and I (the two lawyers in the family) spent hours sifting through all the papers, trying to figure out what was important enough to keep.

It’s amazing what you learn about someone. For instance, my grandpa emigrated to the U.S. from Romania when he was about 13 (around 1932-33), with his entire family, but apparently he didn’t become a citizen until the 1980s. That really blew my mind – I had always assumed, given the fact that he served in the US army during WWII, that he had become a citizen pretty early on. Or the fact that he still had his special driver’s license to drive a tank. a tank! There were photos of his army troop in front of the Arc d’Triomphe, dated in the days after the liberation of Paris. I just think about what it must have been like to be alive at that time, and it’s really overwhelming.

Or the pictures of the brother that apparently died in the war. I never even knew he existed. I think even my great-uncle was blown away by a lot of it. He was significantly younger than everyone else – by the time he was 8, all of his brothers and sisters (there were 6) were grown and out of the house, so he was really raised as an only child.

Anyway, I normally don’t spend a lot of time writing about my family, but reading that entry really triggered something.

Tags: family