Memoir

Pappy

“I call shot gun!” It was mid summer and my
family and I were getting ready to go to Patty's Pond. Pappy and Nana
have a camp there and we were about to go. This fall I was seven
years old. I was getting older so I thought I should sit in the front
seat. This was my second grade year of elementary school.

“No way! I call shot gun, not you! I'll race you
to the car,” I laughed as I shouted.

“I don't think so. I am like five years older
than you, so I deserve to sit in front, not you,” my brother,
Dusty, said.

“You two need to stop. Clint is coming with us,
so neither of you will be able to sit in front,” my mom told
both of us.

When we pulled into camp, I ran inside to find my
Pappy. He was sitting in his chair and eating macaroni and cheese
with hotdogs.

“You hungry?” He asked.

“No. I'm sta-a-r-rving!” I said.

“Get some mac and cheese with hotdogs and come
sit by me,” he said.

I sat by him and ate. When we got done eating, we were
stuffed! I sat there for about what felt like an hour and then we
went outside. There were a few ducks out there and my Pappy, who is
an animal lover, told me to run inside and get some old bread. When I
came back out, the ducks were still there. We sat at the picnic table
and threw the ducks some of the bread. Some of the ducks even came up
to us and took the bread out of our hands. Still in the water, there
were some ducklings with their mother. I guess they were too
skittish, scared, or maybe they weren't even hungry. The ducks
finished eating all the bread, so Pappy and I went back inside to
camp.

“It's so hot out!” I said.

“Oh, I know. I think I'll go swimming soon. I'm
going upstairs to put on my trunks right now,” Pappy said.

We went back outside once again, this time with bathing
suits on. I jumped right into the water. Oh, how good it felt! It was
so refreshing. The water was cold, but it felt so good going against
the hot, humid day. I got out to get a floaty, and I decided that I
would rather go fishing.

“Pappy, is there a fishing pole i can use?”
I asked.

“Hm... Yep. Right here,” he handed me one
of his good fishing poles. It was older, but it worked like a charm.

“Oh darn, I can't go fishing!”

“And why not?”

“Because I don't have any worms!” I
exclaimed.

“Well, I can get something for you.” Pappy
told me.

I had expected him to go to his refrigerator or even go
to the store. Pappy did something that I had least expected. He
grabbed his goggles, put on his water shoes, and waded right into the
water. About five minutes later, he came out of the water with about
two handfuls of clams.

“Think that'll do?” He asked, keeping a
straight face.

“Uh YEAH! That's like way more than I thought. I
didn't even know that you were going to get them from the water,”
I told Pappy.

“Well, I think you have enough for a little
while. I have caught some pretty good sized fish in this lake with
clams like this. Maybe you'll have some good luck too.”

I fished for a while and caught a few little yellow
perch. I also caught some sunfish. I was afraid to take the fish off
though, because they were so squirmy. That was the most fun time I
had ever had with Pappy. He was so energetic and he loved nature so
much.

Three Months Later:

I was in the car and I was on the interstate on my way
to the hospital. Nana didn't want to go to the Eastern Maine Medical
Center because it was a snow storm outside. My mom disagreed and we
were off. We had to drive very slow in order to keep safe. The wind
was blowing us all over the road, but we stayed to one side and we
started to see the hospital come into view.

I walked into a very clean room with a television
turned on. As I looked around the room, I noticed a bed with someone
very pale in it. This can't be for real. I have to be dreaming. It
just can't be him, I thought. It was totally and completely real. It
was Pappy. I was eating Chex Mix, so I offered some to him. The
doctor told me that he wasn't aloud to eat that. He had to eat the
crummy old hospital food. I was having such a good time with him
because we were cracking jokes left and right. Then, I don't know
why, but I felt a lump in my throat I broke down crying. I was
laughing through my tears to try to stop them. I knew something was
wrong, terribly wrong.

After the announcement everybody just sat there crying.
Dusty and David didn't cry, but everyone else did. Dusty and David
had to get ready for school. They are not the type of people who like
to sit around talking about death all day long. They don't like to
remember people like that.

The next morning around 3:45 a.m. I had a wake up call.

“Tasha. Wake up, we are having a family meeting,”
Clint told me.

“At four in the morning! You're nuts. I'm going
back to bed,” I whispered.

“No. We really need to talk to you and all the
other kids.”

Clint and I walked downstairs. He sat in a chair and
there were no other seats, so I sat on his lap. Everyone was
downstairs in the kitchen, sitting on the table, in a chair, and on
the floor. All seven of us.

“We have to talk to all of you kids,” said
my mom.

“Why?” All of us said.

“Well,
Clint and I just got a phone call and it was the hospital. I don't
know how to put this, but Pappy just passed away.”

I didn't know how to respond to the news. I pretty much just melted
right there in Clint's arms. I did not regret going to the hospital
in the storm because that was the last time I saw Pappy. That day, I
didn't go to school. I went to Nana's trailer and we talked about all
the good times we had with Pappy. I knew he was watching over us. To
this day, I still have the feeling that he is with me. I feel like he
is there supporting me through good and bad. I love Pappy. Always
have, always will.