Skip to main content

Missing "Pop-Pop"

My father-in-law was such a sweet and gentle soul.  I never called him by his name, Larry, I always called him, "Pop-Pop."  It 's been seven years this month that he passed away.  He was in World War II where he played the saxophone and was a cook.  My father-in-law made the best pork chops and turkey stuffing I have ever eaten in my life.  When my in-laws would visit us from Cleveland, I would treat "Pop-Pop" like a king.  I would always make him french toast and we would linger so long over breakfast that it would almost be time for lunch by the time we were done talking.  To this day, whenever I eat french toast I think of him!!  The picture below was when Lauren was a baby and we were celebrating one of his birthdays.  The whole time I knew him he always looked the same, he never aged! Wish I could say the same for myself!  Check out my HUGE glasses :)


He spent the last three months of his life in the hospital with heart problems.  I remember sitting by his bedside and I would be nursing my son at the same time.  He passed when Dominic was about 9 months old.   I feel so blessed that he got to meet Dominic!! My Dominic was named after my father-in-law's father whose name was also  Dominic.  Pop-Pop also had a brother named Dominic.  I guess you could say the name kind of runs in the family!! When my stepson was younger, my father-in-law would "wrestle" with him until my stepson would say, "Pop-Pop, I give up!"  He would have been incredibly proud to see how well my stepson has done in his career.  Pop-Pop was a wonderful husband, father, grandfather and father-in-law.  I particularly miss him this time of year because he had a "green thumb" and we would compare the progress of our respective gardens each Spring/Summer.  He and I would "talk tomatoes."   His tomatoes were always so much bigger and juicier than mine.  He told me the "secret" was mothballs in the dirt. The watering can below belonged to my father-in-law.



I read sometimes how people don't get along with their in-laws.  I can probably count on one hand how many times I didn't get along with my father-in-law.  It was very rare.  I feel honored and glad I had such a super father-in-law!!  He was truly very special to me.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Book Every Autism Mom Should Read

When Dominic was diagnosed with Autism at 2 1/2, I went to our local library and took out every book I could find about Autism. Sometimes I would bring back 20 books. This was 2006, so a lot of the information was very "dated." I guess I was looking for a book that would tell me what I should do next, like a "manual." Autism doesn't quite work that way! The saying is, " if you know one person with Autism, you know one person with Autism." Every mom to an individual with Autism follows their own "path." I think as moms, we judge ourselves much harder than anyone else does. I was 41 when I had Dominic. Did he get the diagnosis of Autism because I was an older mom? because I drank a lot of pop? I could sit and think about that every minute of every day. I am pretty integrated into the Autism community around Lansing and have told more than one person that it took me about two weeks to come to terms with Dominic's diagnosis. It is so incredib...

Mainstreaming and Inclusion

The hubby and I were discussing the other day how special education students were treated back when he and I were in school.  He remarked to me that in his time, they were "hidden away" from the rest of the students.  When I was in elementary school, I can remember seeing the kids in those classrooms pass by us in the hallway.  I don't ever recall seeing them in the lunchroom or playground.  I'm so glad that times have changed.  Even though Dominic is in a "self-contained" special education classroom, he does get to go to the art, gym and music classrooms.  He also gets to eat lunch in the school cafeteria.  He loves hot lunch on Thursday - pizza!! Given Dominic's abilities, he is able to be "mainstreamed" into the general education classroom for small amounts of time.  Every moment he is able to do that gives me so much hope for his future.  I absolutely love what Dominic's current teacher is doing.  He has started a peer-to-peer progra...

It's a "Group" Effort

Since going to the local barbershop is still not allowed where we live, it fell upon us to figure out the best way to shave Dominic's beard and mustache. Typically, Dominic goes to our local barbershop to get his haircut and his barber (Vince) also takes about 30 seconds to shave the beard and mustache. This August, it will be five years that Dominic has been going to Vince. That in itself is a huge milestone as anyone with a child/adult with sensory sensitivities knows. Anyways, earlier in the week my hubby, Lauren and I had all noticed that Dominic's facial hair definitely needed some assistance. I mentioned to Lauren that I needed to find a "social story" about getting a shave. Before I had a chance to find one, she took it upon herself to find one and print it out, it had both an electric shaver and shaving cream/razor stories! That meant so much to me, because she didn't have to do that, she wanted to!    I showed the social story to Dominic and sai...