My father in law passed away over the weekend. He was 102, so as my Brit friends would put it "He had a good long innings".
The family reunion I mentioned last time was from that side of the tree. The schedule was complex, some of us had already gone home when we got the news. But others remained. I'm sure stories, tears and a few toasts were on order.
When you live that long your grandchildren get to know you. And not as "grandpa", that silly mix of performance art and vague authority. They know you as a person.
Various legacy stuff came to them when the old gent moved. First from Indiana to Pennsylvania, then to Michigan, then to an apartment, and finally for the last few months of his life, to a nursing home.
This is Major Hoople. It's a vintage lawn tractor that one of my sons trailered all the way back from the east coast. When he got word of the Passing, my son took it out to the back yard and fired it up for a lap around the acreage. It still runs, still has various warranty voiding modifications done back in the day. It still has the dates of oil changes written inside the hood!
Major Hoople, incidentally, was a character from a comic strip called Our Boarding House. It started in 1921 and kept going until 1984. Not bad, but a short run indeed by the standards of my father in law.
Godspeed, George.