To the Greatest Man I Ever Knew

Dear Grandpa,

I wish I got to tell you how much you meant to me. I was always nervous about talking to you, not because I was afraid of you. I was more nervous in the same way someone gets nervous when they meant their favourite baseball player or favourite actor. You were the man that I always wanted to be like. You were the bravest and toughest person I know. I could only imagine what it would like to grow up in a land where you don't speak the language and have those people hate because of it. Being forced to work in the fields and building roads at 11, while the great depression looms on. Then storming the beaches of Normandy at 17. What's not to admire.

Those are the stories that I tell most people. What I haven't told anyone or even realized myself until now. Is that I really loved that you were never afraid to be yourself. You wore your heart on your sleeve. Even when it got you into trouble. You understood what true freedom means (as cliche as it sounds) being yourself. Our ancestors roamed the endless Eurasian steppes simply because they could. Now we can't do that, but you taught me that true freedom is living honestly. Or at the very least, not being who others want you to be.

Your loving Grandson,

Andrew