Today is Father's Day. Yesterday, we lost my grandpa. This Wednesday would have been his 84th birthday. His obituary says that he was born in 1927, served in the Navy from 1944 to 1946, married my grandmother in 1952, had seven kids and worked at the same place for over 30 years before retiring in 1989. All of this is true. But standard obits (true confession: I'm an obituary reader) leave out all the good stuff. Like he was a good son and brother and fiercely loyal friend over decades. His Navy stint? Came after he dropped out of high school to enlist at barely 17. He went to the Pacific theater of World War II and returned home nine months after V-J day, re-enrolled in high school and finished. He lived for over twenty years in the house next door to his in-laws. And that house held seven kids, two adults in three bedrooms and one bathroom. The obit leaves out the fact that he worked very hard as a welder and in the maintenance department at the same foundry that his father w...
