Stanley Carlton Irish (1916-2005)

My Grandpa Stan died today.   He was a simple farm boy who worked hard and tried to play by the rules.   He didn't let things get too complicated, and that is a very admirable trait.   He loved his wife.   He loved home-cooked meals.

"Grandpa," I asked him once.   "Why do you hate going out to dinner?"
"Because it never tastes as good to me as your grandma's cooking and I always end up disappointed that it cost me so much more and wasn't as good," he said.   And he meant it.

He used to take me fishing at Independence Oaks.   We used bamboo poles and caught blue gill.   He'd clean them and Grandma would cook them.   She hated cooking fish but she did it for Stan because he loved it.

He had a mean dad.   I guess his dad had a pretty hard and sad upbringing, so maybe he was entitled to be a mean old man.   But his mother was kind, and so was he.   He once told me that it was too hard to have pet rabbits when he was a kid because he grew attached to them and then was sad when it was time to eat them.   Once, he teased me about needing a hair cut.   I got my feelings   hurt and told him so.   "I don't have enough money to go get my hair cut!"   Later that week, an envelope arrived at my dorm in handwriting I didn't recognize.   It was a check from Stan, in a card that he had signed himself.   I called Grandma:

"What on EARTH?" I asked her.   I had never in my life received anything written from my Grandpa.   That was Grandma's department.

"He felt AWFUL that he hurt your feelings," she said. 

The day after Chris and I started dating I left to spend Spring Break with them in Florida.   A letter from Chris arrived later that week.

"Les, you've got some mail," said Grandpa.   "It's from Smoochie Muggins."

I've called Chris "Smoochie Muggins" on and off ever since. 

He lived a long life. Lived through two World Wars and the Great Depression.   He was married for 66 years to the girl he used to swim across the lake with.   He loved his mother and he loved his brother, and I sure hope they're with him now. 

These are just some remembrances typed through tears as I think about him.   I will miss him and I hope he has safe travels to wherever he is going.