Yellow Tulips

yellow tulip painting by my brother-in-law...
one for each member of my family

I just got my first tulips this year...a sure sign that spring is coming. They were yellow tulips no less, the ones that remind me of my grandpa. When he and my grandma moved back to Wisconsin they lived in senior apartments. My grandpa planted yellow tulips outside by their back porch and he was looking forward to his first spring back in Wisconsin to see them come up. He never made it to the next spring, but life goes on and the tulips bloomed without him.

He always told me I was his favorite and I believed him. And when I was alone with him, it was true. My mom once told me that you get out of a relationship what you put into it and that was never more true than my relationship with my grandpa. When I was in college we would write letters to each other and at the time I don't know if I realized how important they were to me. But they obviously meant a lot, because to this day, I still have them.

I'm most happy for the time I spent with them once they moved back to Wisconsin. I was out of school and working and got to spend time with them as an adult. I would go once a week for dinner and do their laundry and mine. We would talk about all kinds of things or just sit around and watch t.v. together. I feel so fortunate to have had that time with them.

My grandpa was a lot of things, among them was a great storyteller. In order to document his life, my brother had my grandpa make audio tapes telling all his stories. Every so often I pull them out. I love to hear his voice and be taken back to his den in Kenosha, or their screened porch in Florida, or their kitchen table at their apartment in Clement Manor. There was nothing better than hearing him start laughing so hard at a memory that he almost couldn't finish telling the story.

It's been a while since I've heard his voice so I guess I'll go look for those tapes and spend a little time with my grandpa.