PawPaw JimPosted by Kara on August 25th, 2010
Jim set Jim-Jim on the kitchen counter while he was finishing up dinner preparations, when Jim-Jim looked on the side of the refrigerator and noticed a picture of Jim’s daddy, PawPaw Jim.
JJ: [pointing to pic on fridge] “Look, daddy, PawPaw Mike!”
Jim: “No, son, that’s PawPaw Jim.”
JJ: “Oh, PawPaw Jim?”
Jim: [pointing to a different pic on the fridge] “Yep. PawPaw Mike is in this picture.”
JJ: “And Koko Stacy!”
Jim: “Yes, that’s Koko Stacy next to him. PawPaw Mike is mommy’s daddy, and PawPaw Jim is daddy’s daddy.”
JJ: [thinking very hard] “Ooooh, PawPaw Jim.”
JJ: [waving wildly] “Hi, PawPaw Jim! Hi!”
This week was the first time Jim was able to have a conversation with his boy about his daddy, who sadly passed away before Jim-Jim was born. This is just the beginning of the conversations about PawPaw Jim. Oh, the stories he’s going to hear about his PawPaw Jim as he grows up! He was such an amazing man with a magnetic personality. He never, ever met a stranger. One elevator ride with PawPaw Jim, and you had an invitation to the family picnic and your address was on the family Christmas card list. And he was so trusting, always trusting first then letting you prove him wrong. And even if you proved him wrong, he allowed you earn back that trust.
But mostly, he was fun. So much fun to be around! He loved to load the family in the car on a Sunday afternoon after church to wind through the country roads, playfully threatening to knock on a stranger’s door to ask for a coke and a moon pie if Jim and his sister complained that they were hungry. PawPaw Jim had a stroke early in life that caused him to confuse his words. The family was building a deck, and he told Lydia, Jim’s sister, to grab the shovel. She quickly came back with the shovel, and he said, “No, the shovel.” Lydia looked down at the shovel in her hand, eyes wide because they were at an impasse. PawPaw Jim noticed her expression, looked at the shovel in her hand, finally realized what he asked for and what he really needed, and said, “Ah crap, I need the broom.” This also made playing Catch Phrase very interesting. His partner was always his very patient wife/Jim’s mom, and the buzzer always stopped on them. It’s hard to win a game that requires you to use words to describe another word when you can’t get the words straight in your head! But he played, and he made it so much fun for everyone.
It makes us so sad that Jim-Jim will never know his PawPaw Jim. Words can’t possibly do that amazing man justice, and it’s hard to accept that he and Jim-Jim will never create stories of their own. PawPaw Jim would have adored his grandson and namesake. The first time he held his first grandchild in the hospital on the day she was born, he pulled her close to his chest and said, “Let’s go to Wal-Mart and buy you a truck.” But as sad as it makes us that Jim-Jim is going to know his PawPaw Jim through stories only, Jim-Jim’s going to see his PawPaw Jim in his daddy. Because the very same things that made PawPaw Jim special, make his daddy special and are the reason I chose to spend the rest of my life with him!