Pineridge Blog

"Grandpa's Love" Blog by Dora Best

I was fortunate to have a great grandfather for the first eight years of my life. My siblings and I called him Grandpa and loved him dearly and he loved us. He was a good man, religious, loving and worked hard for all he had and treated everyone the same.

We lived close to church, so we walked to get there. Grandpa went ahead of us so he could get to church in time to get a seat in the front row. He wanted to make sure our pastor didn’t make any mistakes with the Bible verses. If he did, Grandpa would have to correct him. Grandma said the pas-tor told her he tried to make a mistake every Sunday so he and Grandpa could discuss it. He said he knew Grandpa got a kick out of it.

When we got home Grandpa would be sitting in the backyard waiting for us kids to recite the Bible verses we had learned that day. At that time, there were three of us. Our younger sister, Mary Jo Misner, was too young to participate. He gave us a dime if we recited it correctly. Egged on by my two older siblings, I tried to trick Grandpa by reciting the same verse two weeks in a row. He pretended not to notice but I know that he knew. This game con-tinued till he died.

We missed him so much. We missed all the things he did with us, including our Bible verse game. He helped me learn about Jesus and how God loved me. That got me through some scary and sad times.

After he died, my mother went through his things. She found LOTS of lemon drops, his favorite. Then she found his Family Bible. He had left a folded newspaper to mark his place. On the newspaper he had written “It’s too dark. I can’t see to read my Bible. I will try again in the morning”. The paper was stuck in the page with his favorite verse. John 3:16. I still think of him, especially on Sundays as I walk into church. I can’t forget what a good person he was. I hope someday, someone can say the same about me.