Grandpa Whitehead

My grandpa passed on Saturday in his sleep in the hospital. We joke that he must have really not wanted to go to the home because the next day the family was going to put him in a home. He had recently been admitted to the hospital with another bout of pneumonia, so his death was unexpected and expected all the same. He was 82. Once again I feel the guilt and sadness associated with the death of a grandparent and not spending enough time with them. Luckily my grandpa got a chance to meet Evelynn.
I have some very fond memories of my grandpa, my father's father.
He always took my brother and I in his truck to Daylight Donuts and let us eat as many doughnuts as our little tummy's could handle.
He had a naked lady calendar on the dash of his truck and I was always daring my brother to look at the next month, then he would come and lace into us for touching the naked lady calendar. Where do you even get tiny dash naked lady calendars these days?
When I was a kid I would ask him how old he was and he would ask me how old I thought he was, and I would say "Pretty darn old!" it was our big joke. We played the joke out at his last birthday party we went to this year.
He was a scrollsaw woodworking master. He made the most beautiful things. He routinely made things for me that my dad didn't have time to do. He made presents for me to give my dad on his birthday, like the golf ball display case. He always let me or anyone else pick from his stash of work he had laid out at his house, if he caught you looking at them.
He never forgot a birthday, anniversary, or minor event. You knew that you would always get a card and sometimes a little money if he had it.
He took care of my favorite cat, Tigger, when Tigger got too old to move around the world. When Tigger died he took it very personally, like he let me down, and called me to apologize and sent me a scrollsaw plate with Tigger's likeness on it. I never blamed him for Tigger's death.
He framed some of my Marilyn Monroe posters I collected.
He always put up in frames the pictures that I sent him. Once, a guy I went to college with was selling insurance door to door and when my grandpa invited him in, he recognized my picture. Another time I took Seth to meet him and when Seth went to look at the pictures he was like, who is that guy with you? It was me and an ex boyfriend. When I admonished grandpa for it, he told me I looked pretty in the picture and I hadn't sent him a new one so he didn't take it down.
He loved doing word searches and he always let me do one or two in his booklets.
You could always count on him to have a lemon drop in his pocket if you needed one.

I love you Grandpa and I hope you are in a amazing place with all of your dogs and Tigger and everyone you love.

Love (my grandpa)
Carrie