Tribute

Tribute To My Grandpa

(Warning: This post is more serious and emotional than the other ones)

If I had to pick the most warm-hearted person in my family, it would have to be my maternal grandfather. I am writing this tribute because my family currently worries about him because he is in a nursing home, but we always come and bring him home every weekend. But first, I want to explain his story from the beginning. Zbigniew T. was born in Poland about a decade before World War II begun. When Germany and Soviet Russia invaded, he got separated from most of his family, and escaped with his older brother, Tadeusz (Ted in English). They managed to survive until they found a base full of former Polish officers trying to form a resistance. Zbigniew was too young, but Tadeusz was qualified to join, and he accepted the offer. My grandpa and his brother found the rest of their family after the war, and everyone was alive. About 60 years later, he came to America with my mother and my older brothers. Even so much later, he was still suffering from the memories of his home country getting destroyed by Soviet Russia and Germany. My mother noticed this, so she got him a dog. The dog was named Morusek. The decision my mother made was extremely smart, Morusek cured the depression my grandpa had. Morusek was always very energetic and made everyone happy. A year later, I was born and this made my grandpa even more happy. My father had left my family just after I was born so my grandpa decided to become my father figure. He took care of me more than anyone else in my family ever did (except for my mother, of course). Unfortunately, most of his brothers and sisters had died by this time. Tadeusz and a few others were still alive, though. All of his siblings were back in Poland. My grandpa made annual visits to them over the years, but the numbers of siblings remaining had been dropping, until Tadeusz passed away just a few years ago. Then, Morusek had passed away two years ago and it was the saddest day of my life. A few months later, we noticed that my grandpa was losing his will to live. In response to this, we adopted another dog from the same shelter which we got Morusek. We named her Tina. She was exactly like Morusek and she made his depression go away. Last summer, he had pneumonia (lung disease caused by old age), and the doctors said he would not have much time left to live. Luckily, the doctors were wrong. He is still with us. But due to dementia, we had to send him to a nursing home not far from our house. He will always have a special place in my heart.