My Grandpa - My Hero

April 20th - the day a great man in my life was born. My grandfather was my hero, my larger than life hero. My brother and I were lucky enough to spend days with my grandmother while my mom and dad worked outside the home. At 3:30 every day, my grandpa would walk through his front door, with his clip-on-tie already undone and hanging from his shirt by only his tie tac, and say the same thing. "What are you brats doing?". Now, you have to know my grandfather. He was a World War II veteran, a part-time volunteer fire fighter, a full-time police detective and then chief. He was rough and tough, or so he wanted you to believe. That was the type of greeting you'd expect from him - no nonsense. It was his way of saying "Hi honey, how was your day?". To me, it was a great treat every day to see him and give him some grief in return.

On your birthday, I miss you more than ever:

To Grandpa Volkmann,

Ten Reasons I Miss You

• I miss your goofy little smile when you would tell Scott your fifteen silly attorney jokes that you heard over coffee at the fire station. The one about ten-thousand attorneys at the bottom of the sea was your favorite!!

• I miss your warm apple pie with the flaky homemade crust. Yes, I know I have the recipe, but it just isn't the same. You must have thrown something else in that pie to make it taste so good!!



• I miss the water fights that we would have every Fourth of July at your house and then Aunt Lori's. You'd use whatever you had to get us wet and that included the sink sprayer through the window!! Remember when we threw you in the pool with your police radio? You were not a happy camper, but you knew you deserved it:)



• I miss hearing your whistle when you were out working in the garage and tinkering with your whirly-gigs. Your whistle always made me smile:)



• I miss you showing up at our house, uninvited and unannounced, but always welcome, just to see if we had anything that had to be fixed and then taking it upon yourself to fix it. You would never take any form of payment for your services either - it would drive me crazy.



• I miss walking into your house and knowing that if it was 6pm, you were taking a nap and we had to be quiet. I'm still perplexed at why you would sleep during the day and then stay up half the night, but that was your MO.



• I miss your perch, french fries and onion ring dinner that you made from scratch. It was the best fish and chips I've ever had. You would never sit down to eat with us though because you were always "testing" the product as you cooked.



• I miss the old,blue Navy sweater that you would wear on cold days - the one that had the burn hole in it and smelled like Old Spice after shave. You loved that sweater and when you wore out the first one, we found you another one. I wonder where that sweater is now?



• I miss how embarrassed you would get to say you loved me. I would tease you without mercy until you would say it out loud. I would say it over and over again, sometimes singing it at the top of my voice, just to get you to respond. It was our game. Of course, you would eventually say it back in your mocking, high-pitched voice, but I knew you meant it. I knew because you showed me every day of my life that you were there for me and that you loved me unconditionally.



• Most of all, I miss that my two youngest daughters did not have the chance to know you as the wonderful grandfather that you were - at least not in this lifetime. Madison remembers you clearly and for that I am grateful. I know you are watching over all of us and I feel in my heart you were at the cemetary the day I dropped your urn off. I had to be you that sent three fire trucks with sirens blazing down the road to the cemetary just as I was putting your urn in place. The funny part was that they got to the curve, just past the cemetary and they turned their lights and sirens off and just went on their way. It scared the daylights out of me and I think I could almost hear you laughing...it would be the kind of joke only you would pull from heaven. Happy 83rd Birthday, Grandpa.