Just like that... my grandfather is gone. So unexpected and sad. I just saw him - 8 weeks ago, tops! He was doing GREAT! We celebrated his 90th birthday and his second shot at love. We danced and kayaked and laughed and hugged. It was a fabulous time and there was simply no reason for me to imagine it would be our last together.
My grandfather was double vaccinated and boosted. All the same, Covid took him in a matter of just one week. He faded all the way out; leaving me with a lifetime of wonderful memories and his silver plated trumpet.
I feel deeply fortunate for the fact that I somehow thought to take an interest in his trumpet playing while I still had him here. The result is that I get the memory of having had real life lessons from him!
During my last visit, just prior to my plane departing, he gave me his beloved silver plated Yamaha. He had others that he held onto, like his flugelhorn, so he could keep playing music himself, but he told me he wanted me "to start enjoying the very best horn out there," (instead of my silly rental) as he bestowed the honor of its care upon me.
I practiced on it quite a lot to ensure that the next time we got together I would really knock his socks off. Instead, as it turns out, all my practice served to allow me catharsis. Here I am playing Amazing Grace from all the way across the country as his breath fades into air.
This is me, after I learned my grandfather was unresponsive, crying and pouring every ounce of love into the very same instrument his breath once poured music through. This is why I love music. My grandfather may gone now, but he will forever be accessible to me through music's loving vibrations.