My knight in shining armour.

I blogged about my granddad before and well I wanted to blog about him again. My granddad was a wise man he was like a book of knowledge and he had a story for everything. Every day we heard a new story or the same story as before but with something that he forgot to tell us about. Right up until the day that he died he was telling us stories. Not many people really live their life but I can assure that my granddad lived his life to the full. He has done everything..... He travelled to lots of different countries, owned a shop, became a knight, set up the order of Malta in Celbridge he became an honorary Carmelite and so much more.

I think that it’s safe to say that my granddad will defiantly be remembered and not just by family members but by everybody who had the pleasure of meeting my granddad. He will be missed on the annual Carmelite pilgrimages to Lourdes and by the friends that he made when he went to Cork to train with his guide dog. He will be remembered by all of the other knights of Malta and by other members of the Order of Malta. He will be remembered by his neighbours and friends but mostly by his family. He was well know sure in art class one day I was getting help from my art teacher and when he was finished he began to ask me about my granddad and this was all because of the shop that he owned.

I have built up a lifetime of memories with my granddad and they are the most precious things to me, nobody will ever be able to take them away from me and well I guess I want to share them with the people who read my blog. I find it hard to talk about my granddad but not to blog it just flows out of me like a river flows downhill.

One of the best memories that I have is from about four years ago during the summer when we went on holidays to Florida. There was a big group of us going I think there was nine of us in total and my granddad was one of them. For most of that holiday I spent most of my time with my granddad because I didn’t like going on rollercoaster’s and none of us thought it would be the best thing he went on them so in the theme parks we would stay together me and my granddad. One day when we decided that we wouldn’t do anything and just hang around the house that we had rented me, Shane, Paul and Amy were in the pool. We kept jumping in and my granddad was sitting at the table beside the pool and he kept getting splashed. He didn’t get annoyed and anytime he went to give out to us he just started laughing.

He eventually go up and picked up a long foam thing that you use in the pool to float and started to hit the water in the hopes of hitting one of us. But he didn’t work, he was going blind so he couldn’t really see us but we had great fun laughing at him and I know that might sound me but he always laughed at himself too. He never let losing his sight effect the quality of his life; sure the week before he died he played a game of pool with me and won with no help from anybody else. He always saw the good side of things never the bad.

I look up to my granddad; he was kind warm hearted, looking, giving, fun and happy. He inspires me and I always try my best to make him proud. I know that he might not be here with me now but he is up in heaven somewhere with my mam and granny looking down on me watching out for me keeping me safe and for that I say thanks.

I always have my granddad with me; after he died I was given his hat... to most people that would mean nothing but to me it means everything. My granddad had a panama jack hat and he wore it everywhere. When he would come up to our house on Wednesdays or any other days I would always take his hat and hide it or I would wear it around the house. It was our little thing.... the hat I think that it brought the two of us close... to me that hat symbolises my granddad. It’s like when my mam died I was given her first ever teddy bear to most people it would just be an old tatty ripped teddy but to me it symbolises my mam.I will never forget how my granddad would smile and say “I bet you didn’t know I could do that” when he would surprise you with something that he did. Sure the week before he died that’s what he said to us after he bet me in a game of pool.

I had many names for my granddad and he had many names for me. I was his shove-over, his vampire and his whippersnapper. He was my gaga, my jellyfish and my grumpy. He meant the world to me and helped to fill a hole that was left after my mam died but after he died a bigger hole in my life was created. I miss my granddad and always will but I will never forget all of the amazing times that we shared together.