Friday, August 29, 2008

Ode to GGpa

Today is/was Chris' grandfather's birthday. He turned 78. His name is Robert Thorold Watson, he is a retired accountant, though he still does tax returns. Last year he did a bunch of 'elderly folks' tax returns at his church for free cause he wanted to make sure they got their stimulus checks from the goverenment. That's the kind of guy he is- thoughtful and generous. He has four sons, ten grandkids, two step-grandkids, eight grandkids-in-law, and eleven great-grandkids who know him as GGpa. And he loves each and every one of the 33 aforementioned people and dotes on them whenever he gets the chance. But the 34th person he dotes on the most is his lovely wife Jaye, and they make the most wonderfullest couple that ever did live on this side of real life 'Once Upon A Time'. Chris and I were fortunate enough to do our premarital counseling with them which was awesome cause they have been happily married for... a really long time. (Yes, we even talked about ... gulp, sex. But it was biblically based, which took the weirdness factor away. For the most part.) I wanna say they have been married for over fifty years, but I will write a correction to that later if I am wrong.

When Chris and I were dating and we were still in the ever fun and exciting 'getting to know you' stage, I asked him which man in his life he looked up to the most. After some serious deliberation, he said 'my grandpa'. And after finally meeting his grandfather, and then getting to know him, and now getting to be his neighbor (seven minutes away! I love our new house!) I can see why he answered that question the way he did. Thanks for being an awesome man of God, an amazing patriarch for the gigantic Watson clan, and just a great guy to be around. We love you grandpa, and if my kids could speak, they would tell you that they love you GGpa!

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