Poppop

I'm home now, and Poppop's chair is empty. I joined Grandma for her nightly bowl of ice cream--there are no little bowls of ice cream in her house, I can tell you: she looked shocked at how little I'd dipped up and asked for more. We ate butter pecan, which was my Poppop's flavor left over in the freezer.

(The Love carving hanging on the wall has been there since I was born--pictures of the grandchildren as babies fill in all the gaps and spill out into the picture frames next to it. The clock above the pictures has a picture of each grandchild and a recording of their voices that marks each hour.

On Grandma's arm in this picture, you can just see a bracelet that Poppop gave to her on the first Christmas that they were dating. It was also the Christmas that he proposed, but he wanted to get her a proper Christmas gift in case their relationship didn't work out and he wanted the ring back. After their more than 60 years of marriage, this story makes us all laugh. And Grandma treasures the bracelet.)