Well... Grandpa isn't doing so hot. Probably won't last more than another day. I went out to visit him this spring when he was on his third pneumonia of the year. He's been fighting small cell lung cancer for about six months (possibly longer), and since the chemo almost killed him the first time around, he hasn't really been able to do anything to treat it.

It was great getting to visit him, he asked me to bring him communion, which was probably the first time he'd had it in about twenty years (quite an honor!), then I was there long enough to see him home from the hospital before I had to go back home again. I pretty much knew then that it was the last time I'd get to see him.

He's been in and out of the hospital since then, the pneumonia never really goes away and the cancer has been spreading to the rest of his chest cavity and his abdomen.

I spoke with him briefly today to let him know I loved him and to say goodbye again. He's still lucid, though he's on morphine to help with anxiety and such. I don't know if they'll ask me to do the funeral or not... I kind of hope for the latter, but I would (of course) do it if they asked.

He was a WWII bomber pilot who flew over thirty missions (life expectancy was about ten to fifteen). He once got shot down over the English Channel and landed the plane so well that it floated for ten minutes before it sank to the bottom (everyone got out alive). Another time he was shot down over enemy lines and spent ten weeks hiding in hey fields and traveling by night to get over the border into a friendly country... just so he could get put back in the air for more missions.

As a grandfather, he was wonderful! He's the only grandfather I had growing up as my mom's dad died when she was four. Lot's of great memories!

Well... off to toast Grandpa's life! (Join me if you've got something aged, alcoholic, and tasty!)