January 28, 2004
My grandpa…I don’t even know where to begin b/c no words of mine will capture everything that my heart feels. I was very close to him and b/c I’m the only girl out of all the grandchildren, he always showed me special attention. When I was young, he always took me swimming. Then, later, my brother and I would always go golfing with him. Not that Simon and I golf, but it was more about getting to spend time with grandpa…and of course getting to drive the golf cart which was so much fun since we didn’t have our driver’s license yet. I don’t know much about golf, but I do know that the ball shouldn’t be falling into the water as it did many times. We, including grandpa, all got a good laugh about it though. Grandpa was always happy and always laughing. Even when his health started to deteriorate, he was still always smiling whenever he saw us. There’s this one incident I remember. We’re all having lunch together and we’re talking about him thinking he can’t hear us b/c his hearing is bad. Well, he looks at me and my brother and then cracks up laughing. I think he understood everything we were saying and was just playing dumb. It was the funniest thing. I know he enjoyed life a lot. From what I hear of his younger days, he lived life to the fullest. He was always itching to go somewhere…loved to travel. Well, his last trip was our family ski trip this past Christmas. One long car ride…but it was worth it once u saw the look on grandpa’s face. He was so happy…to be away somewhere...to be with his family…especially on Christmas. For those of you who know, every year we have never actually spent Christmas with my grandpa and grandma b/c we always go skiing. So this year was very special that we got to go ski and also had them with us. One memory from the trip was when we were supposed to open xmas presents. He was all excited to open gifts...like a little kid on Christmas morning. So we gave him 1 present first, but then we wouldn’t let him open it cuz the whole family wasn’t there. Instead we made him read the card first…so he would read it and close the card when he was done. Everyone still wasn’t there…so he opened the card and read it again…and again…and again. I really think he read it like 10 times. It was actually really funny. You might not get the humor in the situation, but I know grandpa would. I think I take a lot of my laughter and smiles from him. And recently, I learned that he was actually the one who gave me my nickname “Hoi sum goh” which means one who’s happy and laughs and smiles a lot. Apparently he used to call me that all the time. Anyway, that ski trip will remain a favorite memory of mine. Other memories I have are him playing with my dog Harry. Him coming to my college graduation despite his physical condition. Him crying out of happiness to see me every time I came home from NY...and many many more. I’m going to miss him a lot. But I know he is in a better place now and will be watching over us now. Please read His Life Story
