6 January 2016

Do you remember those days where you would just spend hours listening to an elder telling stories about their life? I honestly can’t say I do. It’s been years since the last time I just sat down and took in all the weird stories my grandfather would share over dinner or when I was too sick to even watch my regular cartoons with him. But today I can really say that I felt so at home and could have listened to this man go on forever about his stories.

Maybe I’m just nostalgic for a time in my life that seemed easier, I can’t really be sure to be honest. But it was just nice to get this chance to feel like a real guest in this man’s home. It was nice to just feel not like tourist or a lost puppy in some cases, we just felt like normal people sitting down with one of the most pleasant gentlemen I’ve ever met.

The Nawab was as personable as could be and I don’t know how else to sum him up than the loveable grandpa type. I felt so embarrassed when this tormenting cough just flared up (it seems to like to show up when the sun goes down like some weird vampire plague nonsense) and I couldn’t fight off the cough in the middle of his story.

Thankfully, he was just so gracious and transitioned nicely into some other story. The fact that he handled the situation nicely, had to be told repeatedly that we would be okay serving ourselves, and even gave me a hug while making me laugh after I had repeatedly apologized for interrupting him. I don’t think I realized how much I missed my own grandpa until this day.

My grandfather played a huge role in my life. He would take me to school and pick me up. He would make sure I got to ballet classes okay. If I got sick, he made sure that I had my usual chicken ramen with eggs while watching my favorite cartoons. It’s been over a decade since I last saw my grandpa. I can’t even remember the last time I saw him because I was scared to see him the way he was. He was so sick and that man was my rock for everything. No matter how weird or dramatic life got, he was always there for me. I would remember those odd days that we would just sit in his house and he’d let me sit in the rocking chair every once in a while.

One of my favorite memories of him definitely had to be all the times he would take me to the park. You would just see my grandpa smoking a cigarette watching from a slight distance as my friends and I were up to whatever shenanigans entertained us that day. He was always there and people knew how much he meant to me.

It really kind of hit me tonight that he never saw me graduate from anything other than Pre-K. I just remember how much I would love to have given him a bit of hell by choosing to go to school far enough away, I would have loved to see him react to me driving my 2002 Ford Explorer, I would have loved to see him in May after I crossed that stage with my college degree in hand.

I won’t have any of these moments and having tea with this man reminded me of that. I guess at least what I can take away from this is that time really is precious and those memories we make with people are so important for helping us realize how the rest of our lives might go. I hope I can make these little memories somewhat significant to my friends from this point on. I’d hate to see them leave my life but if this has made me remember anything – it’s the little moments we don’t even think about that keep us going.

Til next time.