My Papa Buff

My Papa Buff passed away last Thursday 2 days before his and Granny's 50 year anniversary. We buried him on Monday, and I'll just say it was a very hard day. My Papa had been on hospice care for about 3 years, sometimes he was so great and then the next day we would think it would be our last day with him. I am so glad he stuck around to see Addie and Ali. He LOVED those girls. He didn't always remember Graham and Manny's name but he ALWAYS remembered Addie and Ali.
When I was younger Papa Buff was the coolest! We would go over there on Friday nights and he would let us drive the tractors in the field, he would sneak us junk food, and he would play with us the whole time. Miranda and I would climb all over him and we would ALWAYS watch TGIF together. He seemed as interested as we were. Alot of the time we would get to spend the night out there and on Saturday mornings while Granny was making breakfast Papa and I would go out walking and looking for rocks on their property. We found so many rocks and we named them all, usually 'nugene' to make Granny mad (he always called her that, but I really don't know why). I remember one time they were coming to our house for dinner and I decided that I needed to display all the rocks Papa and I had collected. I had this really pretty shelf in my room that Daddy built for my books and stuffed animals, I decided that would be the best place for everyone to see them. When my mom came in my room and saw all these dirty rocks on this pretty white shelf she was infuriated. Luckily, Papa and Granny walked in about that time so she didn't have a chance to yell at me. I got Papa and brought him upstairs to see our collection, he laughed and said that was a perfect place for them. Papa always understood me, I always was able to talk to him about things. When Graham asked me to marry him (finally) I went to Papa and asked him what he thought of Graham. He approved, he said he thought Graham was a good man that would take care of me ( FYI- he is a good man that takes care of me and Addie, I am so lucky!). My Papa Buff was a good man, he was kind and had a way of making everyone feel welcome in his house.
I feel so lucky to have had him as my grandfather. I love you Papa so much and I will think of you every day.