My Grandpa

Yesterday morning in Sendai (Tuesday night in Pittsburgh), I got a very sad and unexpected call from my mom to tell me that my Grandpa (her dad) had a heart attack earlier in the day and had passed away that evening (while I was sleeping here in Japan).  He had just gotten off the phone with my Uncle Mark and was in the bathroom shaving.  My Grandma called the ambulance and my Grandpa was taken to one hospital and later life-flighted to another; but the doctors said he had been out of oxygen for too long and couldn't recover.  He had never regain consiousness from the heart attack. They gave him pain medication to ease his pain.  My mom, Grandma, and Aunt Becky were with him in the hospital when he passed away.  This is his obituary.

My Grandpa Parkinson with me, Kris and Grandma Parkinson at our wedding a year and a half ago

My Grandpa's physical and mental condition had been in decline for the past year, but even still the heart attack and his death were sudden and unexpected.  At first I was just in shock.  My mind understood logically what was going on, but my heart could not grasp it.  As I began my morning routine of getting ready, slowly things started to sink in.  One moment I was okay and the next I was in tears, cuddling up to Kris.

I'm sad that I will never see my Grandpa again.  I'm sad for my Grandma, whose life was so intertwined with my Grandpa as she cared for him, cleaned for him, and cooked for him day after day.  My heart really breaks for her.  Please pray for my Grandma and for the rest of my family.

I looked into flying home for the funeral, but even with "bereavement" fares, found that traveling home would cost almost $2000 after the cost of the flight and bullet train to the airport.  My mom reasurred me that the family and my Grandma would understand that I couldn't make it back and not to worry about it.  I really wanted to be there to be with my family and to say "goodbye" to my Grandpa, and not being there is really hard for me.  I'm not quite sure how to grieve or what comes next.  If I were home, I would be getting ready for having family in town and there would be the viewings and the funeral and probably late night drinks while swapping Grandpa stories with the cousins.

Since I can't share stories with my family, I thought I'd list some things about my Grandpa that I don't want to forget.  You don't have to read them.  They are mostly for my own benefit and for my family, if they read this.

• Grandpa always had his own personal jug for cold water/iced tea that no one else could drink out of (and no one else wanted to for that matter!).
• He LOVED sports -- playing them, watching them, reffing for them, talking about them, betting on them.  It was common for Grandpa to shout "Family First!  Family First!" as he shoveled down a family meal in between innings or halves of a game.
• He was the inventor of "Picture in Picture", watching 4 different TV's on 4 different stations at the same time at home.
• During my childhood, he and my Grandma rented a house on the beach in St. Augustine for the family.  Those vacations were some of the best, and provided me with so many great family memories.  Grandpa liked to go running on the beach and sit out on the porch with his pipe and his radio, listening to games.
• He was wearing his pants saggin way before anyone else caught on to the trend.
• He loved his scottie dogs.
• When I was a teenager, he would often tease me about my boyfriends.
• Sometimes he danced around the living room when the Pirates won and sometimes he sang old songs just for the enjoyment of it.
• He officiated for games for 60 years and was still officiating high school girls' softball games last fall.
• He like to gamble and he and my Grandma often took trips to Atlantic City together.
• He and my Grandma honeymooned in the same place Kris and I got engaged - Niagara Falls.
• My cousins called him "Mokey Moke" when they were little (their way of saying "smokey smoke") because of how much he smoked his pipe.

I love you Grandpa.