Pop Pop

On Sunday, November 28, 2010, my grandfather passed away. He was 90-years-old and had been sick for a while with congestive heart failure. He went in his sleep, peacefully, and it's comforting to think that now he's with my Nana, throwing back martinis in heaven.

Chase was an especially big fan of Pop Pop. He just thought he was really cool. First, Pop Pop has an organ at his house, and Chase loved to bang around on the thing, making as much noise as possible. Second, Pop Pop's house is on the river, and Chase loved that you could watch the sailboats at the yacht club from the living room window. But thirdly, and most importantly, Chase just loved to be around Pop Pop.

I don't know exactly why, and that's not to imply that my grandfather wasn't a good guy, it's just that by the time Chase came around, he was starting to get really sick. He needed round-the-clock breathing treatments and traveled everywhere with an oxygen supply. He's been stone deaf for as long as I can remember, so he wasn't much of a conversationalist, particularly in his later years. For the past few months, he's spent most of his time in bed or in a wheelchair. And yet Chase, in a way that I can only describe as uniquely childlike, found Pop Pop to be one of the coolest guys on earth. He just liked being around him, he always asked about him, and he would get genuinely excited when we'd go down to visit him (which, admittedly, probably wasn't as often as it should have been).

Today we're heading out to say a final farewell to the man Chase and I both knew as Pop Pop, so I thought I'd pay a small tribute here by posting a few pictures of Chase with his great grandfather. Rest in Peace, Pop Pop, and tell Nana we love her.