The Song of the Count

My grandfather, who lived an absolutely admirable life for 91 years, passed away last Friday. He's already very much missed, but my siblings and I found ourselves celebrating the man more than mourning him. All week people told stories about him as a cocky young pilot, as the commander of a base, as a strict and loving father, a doting grandfather and great-grandfather, an elder in his church, a volunteer in his community, and as a very, very dry wit. These stories made us want to be like him and honor him in our own lives.

And because anytime you get me and Ed together with my brother, sister, and their spouses we laugh a lot, the fact that this was playing on iPhones most of the week caused a few ruckuses. Grandfather modeled good behavior all the time, and I doubt he would have laughed at something so off-color in front of his grandkids, but I think that young man who wrote down his own anecdotes about going to see dancing girls would have gotten a kick out of the one bleeped word in a real Sesame Street skit. I know he would have loved to see us fall out of our chairs laughing.