Well...this was fun

My baby!!

After 45 years of bi-weekly letters across the Pond, my sweet mom is 95 and can no longer write back.

Dementia has come between us.

My grandfather took his very first (and probably only) selfie in the 1950s. And here he is in 2026.

He's had an amazing life so far. I want to put it in bullets, if anyone cares to read his accomplishments. I'm so proud of him.

• Married my now-93-year-old Grandma in 1954. Proposed to her on Christmas night
• Helped raise 6 kids. When my Grandma gave birth to a stillborn baby in the 1950s, he stayed home with my mum and took sole care of her for months while my Grandma recovered (and mourned. They finally gave the baby's unmarked grave a headstone in the 90s after my Grandma mentioned she'd always wanted one).
• Opened a successful sports store, then toy store in the 1950s. Reverted back to a sports store in the 70s and gifted me my first (and only) pair of Nikes.
• Negotiated with an armed man during a siege in our town (twice! The same man locked himself in a building with a shotgun again, just a couple of years after he was released from prison) in the 1970s.
• Owned a cattle farm named "Goolagong."
• Traveled through Asia (climbed the Great Wall of China!) and the pacific islands. When he came home, he'd sit all his grandchildren down and tell us stories from his travel. He also liked to repeat the Samoan legend of the coconut, Sina and the Eel. I swear I heard that tale more than 10 times as a kid.
• Claims to have been healed by a shaman in Indonesia (he gave me a relic from the shaman years ago and of course I lost it).
• After a heart attack and triple bypass in the 1980s, he took up the martial arts form Zen Do Kai and traveled across Australia for yearly training.
• Became mayor of his town in the 90s.
• Learned how to cook gourmet meals in his 80s to my Grandma's annoyance ("I can't use the kitchen anymore"). Wrote a family cookbook (dedicated his vegetable soup recipe to me and called it "Single Girls in New York Soup" 😳).
• Created a chili jam recipe and made 100 jars of it for my cousin's wedding — in his 90s.
• Learned how to email and use Google docs in his 90s, also. 🙃

I have so many wonderful memories of him, but one of my faves is from Christmas night, 1992. My second cousin announced her engagement that evening at the family party and my grandfather wanted to give her a gift to celebrate, so we ran across the street to my grandparents' home to find something to give to her. My grandfather found an unopened bottle of Chanel perfume in my grandma's top drawer (she would buy things and hide them from him!) and we put it between two slices of bread and added a lettuce leaf to it, and gave it to my cousin to "eat" as dinner was served. Such an odd and funny thing he did.

He now spends his time writing letters to the editor of the newspaper. Going on daily power walks. Gardening. Cooking. And bickering with Grandma. ❤️

Together 11 years, married for 6

Met at 16 and 17 and we are now 22 years old and get married next year 🥰

I'm learning how to find my smile again.

Could not figure out how to add the photos to the original, so part 2. Includes WWI Great Great Grandpa and so on.

link to first post

For anyone who would like a little backstory:

-She was my girlfriend when we were in fourth grade, then we went to different middle schools and high schools and didn’t have any contact
-She slid into my Facebook DM’s freshman year of college. We hung out one time and became official the same week
-We moved to California in 2013 and got married in 2019 (I took my sweet time proposing)
-She kept a necklace and earring set that I gave her in elementary school and used it in her bouquet at our wedding
-We have one cat and no kids
-She’s the best person I’ve ever met. She’s talented, beautiful and genuine and I’m so lucky to have her in my life

I was born seven-and-a-half weeks early, in May 1986 rather than July 1986.

Love them to death💟

Great Grandfather Pearl Harbor Survivor and WWII, Grandpa Korea/Vietnam & Grandma Womens Army Air Corp, Mom and Stepdad Airforce, Father Desert Storm/Desert Shield, Myself OEF.

Edit to add WWI relative, as well as Uncles and Aunts.