Abuelo

Normally this would be a post about March Madness. But my wife’s father passed away last Sunday, so I haven’t been paying much attention. I did my picks for my pool without much thought at all (and it shows in the standings). At least my team Indiana beat Gonzaga in the first round (and I bet a lot of people picked Gonzaga).

My wife’s father was Abuelo to our daughter Danielle (abuelo is Spanish for grandfather, if you didn’t know). His death was hard for a number of reasons. Obviously it is hard on my wife. And this is the first loss that our daughter has experienced (other than a goldfish). What do you tell her? When do you tell her?

Thankfully four year olds have a very short attention span. We were going to take her for ice cream before we told her that Abuelo was in heaven. She cried and talked about how much she would miss him. And then while she’s crying in her mother’s arms, she looks up and says “can we go get ice cream now?”. Ah, to be four again.

He had a very full life. We got to celebrate his 90th birthday a week before he died, so that will always be a good memory. And at least Danielle got to know him, if only briefly. We have lots of pictures of the two of them together.

This is Abuelo with some of his grandchildren last Christmas (Danielle is on the right). We will miss him.