EPILOGUE

Living so close to Grandpa and Grandma Brown allowed me to spend inordinate amounts of time with them.  My relationship with them provided me with experiences that would serve me throughout my life.  Their influence on me was incredibly impactful and I will be eternally indebted to them both.  Grandpa had a bad hip.  If he had lived now it could have been replaced but that wasn’t an option then.  Instead he just endured the constant pain.  When I was young I could run to get things for him.  I saved him a lot of steps through those painful years.  It was a great symbiotic relationship.  For while I was running to get things and save him steps, I was learning how to work, how to do things.  Grandma liked me being with him because if something happened I could run for help.  That gave her comfort she wouldn’t have otherwise known.  She would always tell me that she didn’t know what they would do without me.  Hearing that message repeatedly filled me with value at an early age.  I felt important to them.  I was drawn to them and respected them.  I loved them and miss them still.  The things Grandpa loved are things I still love more than sixty years later.  My affinity for hard work took root on that farm and was shaped by the time I spent with Grandpa.  My memories of them are rich and abundant.  I owe so much to them and will  always be indebted.  I wish the money had never run out.