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My Grandad died early this morning. 95! Last time I saw him he wondered if I remembered when I was 5 and we found that snake in the north pasture behind the pond. He always told the same stories, even when I WAS 5, about this friend from his childhood named Tris. Tris, or rather Chris, had a nasty little speech impediment apparantly and picked up the Tris moniker from the other kids. My grandfather was notoriously hard of hearing. My grandmother was his hearing aid ever since I can remember. But deaf as he was we had to stop all the clocks when he'd come to visit because he could hear the grandfather clock ticking through 2 walls. There was always a concert when he'd come to visit. He had to hear his grandson play the piano. I used to wonder what he could hear, but keeping in mind the stopped grandfather clock I gave him the benefit of the doubt. A computer was a computer was a computer for him. When I started working in that field, he had my aunt ask me if I could fix his car. Some module in the ignition system (in other words, a computer) needed to be replaced. He and my grandmother raised 5 kids, outliving their 2 eldest sons, one of them my dad. My grandmother is 92 now. They've been together since they were teenagers.
I'm just beginning to miss him, but I'm so very glad I knew him.
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