Grandpa

Last week, I was preparing to travel back to Missouri to say goodbye to my grandpa. He had been sick for a decade battling chronic leukemia and then congestive heart failure. His age and diseases were taking a toll on him and when I last saw him (Christmas), he wasn't looking like himself.
The week before last, they found some spots on his liver. The onco nurse didn't think it looked good. My grandpa was dying. I was called home.
Sadly, before I got there, he passed away.

We hung out at my Grandma's house a lot over the weekend. I know that his death was hard on her but I'm pretty sure she had come to terms with it long before it actually happened.
Grandma encouraged us to take whatever we wanted as she knew the house would have to be packed up. Its hard to do that. Its hard to know what means so much to you when put on the spot like that.
I knew more than anything else what I wanted.
A grocery list.

Grandpa was legendary in his grocery shopping ways. As kids, he rarely let us go with him lest we distract him from watching every item being ran up so he could argue the sale price where needed. Grandpa didn't hesitate to go to multiple grocery stores to save some money. (Product of the Depression I guess.)

His sale ads were always circled in red magic marker.

He had his grocery lists for each store. I like the first list because Grandpa made it and Grandma put specifically what she wanted on it. That was actually pretty rare. 

When he could buy things on sale, he would store extra in the basement. 

Other things I remember about my Grandpa-
When I was between my senior and junior years of high school, he took me to Columbia with Grandma for a summer camp type program. He got pulled over for speeding when passing and got a ticket.

He called me by my aunt's name with regular frequency.

When we ate lunch, Grandma would make his salad and hide a single pea at the bottom. Grandpa hated peas. 

When they moved to TDL, Grandpa would wake us up and take us to the beach to swim in one of the lakes. We didn't know how to swim so we could only go in to our waists. 

Losing a grandparent as a kid is sad. Its confusing and abstract. Losing them as an adult is harder I think because you know what a good person they are...