108

Dear Grandpa,

Happy 108th birthday in Heaven!  How are you doing up there?  Is Heaven even UP?  Why have we all decided it's in the sky?  Maybe it's just in another dimension, but it's right here on Earth with us!  Or is that a crazy thought?

I wrote you a letter last year on your birthday.  I think some people thought it was crazy of me, but... I guess it isn't any stranger to imagine you reading a letter on the internet than it is to imagine you floating on top of a cloud.  

School was supposed to start for me today.  Actually, it still will tonight.  But I was supposed to be taking 3 classes, not just one.  I had to miss the first two on account of an appointment for an ultrasound (more on that later in another post!)  So I'll get to my one class tonight, but that will be it for Spring term.  Not exactly how I planned it, but that's fine.

Have you seen B's daughter??  She's going to be 3 in July and she is SO CUTE!  I think she looks like Aunt E when she was little.  And like Grandma.  Grandma was so pretty.  I know you agree; you married her!  I miss you both.

The other night I was telling my friend about how you guys escaped Lithuania and walked/hitched rides all the way up into Germany at the end of the war, when Grandma was pregnant with my dad.  I told him how I have the tattoos on my back and on my foot for you guys.  He was really surprised by the story.  And I told him how my dad had to sleep in a dresser drawer in the displaced persons camp, and how Aunt E had to keep him from falling off the ship on the way across because it had no railings.  He was inspired by you guys.  I also told him about you and the tractor.  Oh, that tractor.  I'm sure you never wanted to see another tractor again as long as you lived once you were done with that one!

What would you like me to bake in honor of your birthday this year?  Please pop the answer into my head as soon as you get a minute.  I promise I'll be on the look out for it!  I can bake anything!  And I'll put a candle in it, just for you!  Not 108 candles... that would be a fire hazard.  (Joking.. sort of!)

You know what I just remembered?  When we went to Israel when I was 6 and we had dinner at Uncle Shmuel's house.  I remember the cinderblock walls and the dark carpets.  And the whole building smelled old.  But I can remember his voice and how he sounded.  I asked my dad if your voice sounded like Uncle Shmuel's and he said no, your voice was deeper.  He said Uncle Shmuel was a nervous man, and I can remember his voice being sort of high pitched and shaky.  My dad said your voice sounded more like his (my dad's) than like your brother Shmuel's.  I wonder what Uncle Shmuel would say about my bird being named Shmuel.  Never mind the fact that my bird Shmuel turned out to be a girl!!!  Hope he wouldn't mind!

Well Grandpa, I'd better get going.  Lots of stuff to accomplish today before class tonight.  I miss you.  I love you.  I hope you are okay.  Please come see me again.  It's been a long time.

Love,
Blischedekah Agen