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"Grandpa, I'm very glad that you're here, and I'm so happy to have this opportunity to meet you!"

Grandpa Arthur was the one grandparent that I never knew - he died when my Dad was only three. To talk to him, to see his face and to hear his voice - would be the experience that I've dreamed of all my life.

I know all the facts - when he was born, when he and Grandma married - when each of the children were born - and when and how he died. I know that he was tall and slender - that he had dark hair and blue eyes. Anyone who knew him has told me that he was a kind and gentle person who loved his family very much.

We have one of those old "stiff" photos of he and Grandma as a wedding couple - both in their Sunday best, but it's that old snapshot of them that I love - he's sitting on a blanket out in the yard under the big shade tree - she's laying down with her head in his lap and he's looking down at her - they look so much in love. He was her only love and no one else could ever compare in her eyes - she never remarried.

Dad was very small when Grandpa died that he didn't remember much about him - just what his mother and older brother and sister told him. He recalled one occasion when Grandpa took him on horseback to a neighbors and didn't tell Grandma that that he was taking him - she'd been looking for him all over the farm!

I do know that Grandpa would tell me how proud he was of Grandma - keeping the farm and raising the children there after he passed. I know he's watched down from Heaven to see his children grow and prosper and he's welcomed them all home when they came to join him. They're all together there now, with the baby sister that lived only a few hours. Grandma must be spending hours rocking her in Heaven.

For the last fifteen minutes of my hour, I want to be a child again. I want to hear my Grandpa play his fiddle and sing. I want him to swing me up in front of him on his big bay mare and go for a ride. I want to sit on his lap, hug him and kiss him, and tell him I love him.

"Yes, Grandpa, I know you love me too!" I've always known.

Learn more about this author, Debra Herring.
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