It was a hot Saturday, and my baseball team had won another game. I was so happy. My dad and I got home around 2 o’clock in the afternoon and at 2:30 I thought that my world was crashing to an end. My grandpa Ron had died the night before and my dad has just told me, my brother and my sister. I am writing this memoir about my Grandpa Ron because he was special to me, and I want to share that with you. My Grandpa was my dad’s father. He was married to my grandma Jane and they had four kids. They are my dad, my aunt Karen, my uncle Terry, and my aunt Eileen. He died on June 16, 2006. It was a very sad day for me and my family. My grandpa was one of a kind. Sometimes he was funny and sometimes he was serious.


There was this one time when my grandpa called my brother Mike instead of Matt, I thought that was pretty funny, because he really thought my brother’s name was Mike. He was confused. Every time I think of that story it makes me laugh.


The one serious thing that I remember about my grandpa Ron was that he really liked his car. Nobody was allowed to ride in it except for my grandma and once I got to ride in it. Of course, I had to wipe my feet first before I got in his car. It was like a trophy to him. It was always clean and shiny. I really didn’t like his choice of cars. He would always pick ugly cars. His last car that he had before he died was a Lincoln. The roof was tan and the rest of the car was a light blue. In my opinion the two colors just didn’t match. But hey, nobody is perfect.


There were two other things that I remember that my grandpa was serious about. He really liked war movies and he loved the New York Giants football team. I am like him in some ways, because I like war movies and the Giants too. My dad and I would watch the Giants with him when he was sick.


And then it happened he died. My grandpa was 73 years old when he died. He was pretty young. I wish he was still alive because he was very nice to me. There was this one time when he was sick that he gave me one of his war movies to keep. It was very painful to see my grandpa dead in a casket. I hope to be like my grandpa in some ways because he was a good guy. After experiencing my grandpa’s death, I realize that you should be thankful for everyone in your life. I made a promise to myself that I would try to make my other grandparents and other family members feel special. Last week my grandpa Jack came to my football game. After the game I went over and hugged him and thanked him for coming to my game. It meant a lot to me. I hope he knows that he is important to me just like everyone else in my family. I am also trying to remember to say thanks to my parents more often. For example, the other night my mom went outside to pick up my new sneakers. If she hadn’t done that they would have gotten wet from the rain. I am thankful that my mom thought of me and I did say “thank you”. Those two words make a big difference and that is why we should all be thankful to the people that we love because the end could be near.