Tuesday July 6, 2004

Bert Kaper (1921-2004)

Posted by Rob (#1) on July 6, 2004 13:40 CEST

This morning my grandfather passed away. I honestly cannot claim to be shocked though: his health had been a serious concern since he suffered a double heart attack eight years ago. It's been downhill since and when he was taken into the hospital on Wednesday it was already clear that the stroke he had was not one he'd be able to recover from. They didn't give him a chance to make it through the night, but stubborn as he could be he spend six whole days fighting anyway.

It's a shame that memory loss played such a great role in his life those past years. While he unmistakingly had his better occasions, the endless repetition of the same topics in a conversation does take away chances of memorable moments. Fortunately it never came to the point where he didn't recognise his own family anymore, and I hope that the mysteries of life and death do have some sort of secret memory cheat were people that visit your death bed are remembered pleasantly despite of memory loss.

So now it's for sure: no more Bible readings on Christmas. No more apologies for not keeping up with the time whenever I had a new phone, gadget or tech toy. No more arguments over the number of wine bottles stored in my dad's basement.

I no longer have a biological grandfather. Never had two of them, now I don't even have one anymore. Not a shock, but still.. even though my day-to-day life won't change, there will be awkward moments when I'll think of him and only realize he's gone later, ending up missing my opa.

I still don't know if he was right about these things, but if there is an after-life, I hope he's having fun in it, with or without the Lord.

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