Quote:
Originally Posted by Superman
I'll bet. The saddest thing about these guys, service is that it ended and nothing else later in their lives came anywhere close to the FOCUS and the fidelity and the opportunity and the camaraderie and the self-awarness and the honor they had during that time. I truly, truly, wish I could have what they had.
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I know for a fact that the most productive part of my grandfathers life was when he opened up Adams and Mahoney in NYC, he ran a huge shop with lots of very prestigious clients, he was dealing with the who's who in NYC in the 60's. He built up a very successful business that most people scratch their heads every to try to figure out how to be this successful. He retired very comfortably at the age of 55. He then went to "work" as a grandfather to my cousins and I.
He was a true gentleman, he was the one responsible for teaching me how to swing a golf club, proper etiquette both as a man and at a dinner table.
You know as I type this there I think there are 2 types of people in the world. Those that need to be in a large group of like minded people in order to feel self important and those who prefer to go it alone and blaze their own path. My grandfather was the later. He was not part of any elks clubs, moose lodges or VFW halls, he never partook in any ceremonies after the war the memorialize it. He did his own thing, he kept to himself minded his own business and lived his life to the fullest dealing with the hands he was delt.
My grandmothers alzheimer's was a crushing blow to him, he ended up dying shortly after her, I am convinced it was of a broken heart. The man was doing 100 pushups and 100 situps every morning up until he was close to death. He wore the same size clothes his whole life. He was the epitome of health. After all he had been through my grandmothers ravaging death is what killed him.
What breaks my heart is that I rarely saw him after the move to Florida, once I could afford to fly my family up we began seeing him every July, starting in 1999 in July 2001 I saw him for the last time weeks before his death. He seemed to be healthy as an ox when I saw him.