My grandfather was a stoical...
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My grandfather was a stoical man; he showed very little emotion. He was a German immigrant who carved out his life from the soil of the prairies. He knew the hardships of crop failure, depression, and death. He experienced the joys of good crops and children. Through it all, he never got too excited, rarely got angry, and never cried.
I am told that when his first wife died and left him with three young children, he went to the pastor to have her buried, then asked if the pastor knew another woman who would be interested in marrying a man with three children -- he needed a wife. But he never cried.
But there was a time that I saw him cry. By then an old man, his three-year-old granddaughter got out of the house one spring day, and attracted by the sound of running water, made her way to a ditch overflowing with winter runoff. She slipped in and drowned. At her funeral, Grandpa openly cried. An old neighbor and friend made a comment much like the one about Jesus, "He must have loved that little girl very much."
I am told that when his first wife died and left him with three young children, he went to the pastor to have her buried, then asked if the pastor knew another woman who would be interested in marrying a man with three children -- he needed a wife. But he never cried.
But there was a time that I saw him cry. By then an old man, his three-year-old granddaughter got out of the house one spring day, and attracted by the sound of running water, made her way to a ditch overflowing with winter runoff. She slipped in and drowned. At her funeral, Grandpa openly cried. An old neighbor and friend made a comment much like the one about Jesus, "He must have loved that little girl very much."
