“I never thought I would see 83” but you did! 83 years jam packed full of wild adventures, near death experiences, great love, deep sorrow, melodrama, deep laughs, and many intellectual conversations.
My grandpa died this week. Since I’m not there to grieve with and love on family right now, I was sitting in Colombia this morning thinking about his legacy. What will we all remember about him? What has he passed onto the next generation?
A lot.
Education was beyond important and he passed the love of learning into his children and they did the same. He came to America as a teenager with nothing but a zeal to learn and the willingness to work at it. Fast forward a few years and you have Dr. Nancarrow.
He had the best nack for telling stories. Telling stories was one of his favorite things. Stories of his wild younger years, the crazy experiences in his years of teaching college, or stories of the show he was doing the lighting for. They were all enthralling. Grandpa had mastered the placement of a pregnant pause and could make a story about walking to the mail box interesting.
Grandpas garage was always full of tools and different projects. He loved to work with his hands and made some of the most beautiful pieces of stain glass work. He could fix most things, and if he couldn’t he was gonna give it the old college try before he admitted defeat.
So, thank you, grandpa. Thank you for sharing your life through story with me, thank you for imparting the desire of education upon your daughters who in turn impressed it upon me (without that I probably wouldn’t have made it through college), thank you for giving me your flair for the dramatic and the love for story, thank you for supporting my crazy dreams for travel and living for more than just the 9-5, thank you for being unapologetically yourself, thank you for passing on the mile wild stubborn streak to your oldest daughter who passed it on to me, thank you for having a love for all art including the creation of it, thank you for admitting you weren’t perfect and showing what it looks like to overcome past mistakes with love and forgiveness, and thank you for being my grandpa.
