Lessons My Grandfather Taught Me

“Behind the jungle trees and bushes stood a man silently waiting and watching. The humidity of the Papua, New Guinea, air formed sweat beads across his forehead, but Otto did not wipe them for free of making a sound. If the enemy heard movement, they would surely shoot to kill.”

Or at least that’s how I imagine it.

My grandfather was a member of the 112th Cavalry Regimental Combat team during WWII as a Staff Sergeant and squad leader. He left the war wounded… receiving a Purple Heart (and Oak Leaf Cluster). Growing up, I thought that was what made my grandpa “cool.” I remember seeing the pictures of him in uniform, along with his medals. Wow, he was pretty amazing…

But it wasn’t his war days that gave me insight into this great man… it was in his everyday battles that I learned the most. I was too young to remember (perhaps not even born yet), but Grandpa had been battling cancer for as long as I had been alive. Most of the time he seemed to be fine. Then there were the times he’d have to go to the doctor and became increasingly ill. I now understand that to be chemo or radiation. As a little girl, those words are meaningless. What I could see was the fatigue on his face..

But when he sat me in his lap saying “I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck…” I felt the love of the entire world in his hug. Any illness was erased. When he grabbed his silver radio and swung me around to dance to his favorite polka, I could see youth radiate onto his face through his smile. That was the grandpa I adored.

I could always count on him to be present. Grandpa was the man I wished my father could have been. It was because of  him I learned the importance of family and valuing your roots. Not only could he speak English but he could speak Czech as well. That was our heritage and he never let anyone forget it.

He taught me to smile through the pain, to turn tears into triumph. Life is a war… and if he could make it through one, why can’t I?

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