Your True Tales
December 2007 - Page 20
Grandpa Bob
by Delores
My son was born with an inner ear defect and could not hear until he was nearly two years old. Because he couldn't hear, he also couldn't talk with "real words". Everything he said came out sounding "muddy" because that's how he heard it. Mostly we spoke to each other in signed English, and he didn't use speech very often.
My mother's father died when I was 17 after a protracted battle with pancreatic cancer. I loved my grandfather very much and miss him. My son came along four years later, so clearly he never met my grandfather. Also, as will be important in a minute, I never ever called my grandfather by his first name. He was not Grandpa Bob or anything like that. He was just Grandpa. I never, ever referred to him as "Bob" in any instance. If I had to distinguish him from my other grandfather, I called him by his last name. I have no idea why, but none of us ever called him Bob.
One day my husband's sister was over visiting, and my son was just over a year old. I was telling her how at night I would hear Corwyn in his crib talking to someone. He'd giggle and laugh and say, "Bob." I had just said, "I wonder if my grandfather is visiting him...." And my sister-in-law (who never knew my grandfather and had never seen a picture of him) asked, "Do you have a photo we can show Cor and see if he recognizes your grandfather?"
I had a scrapbook my mom made me in the closet (Cor had never seen it), so I pulled it out and started from the beginning, which is my dad's side of the family. The first picture of Grandpa was on about the fifth page. Corwyn didn't really say anything or pay much attention to the pictures as we were flipping through. He was sitting on my sister-in-law's lap and she was holding the book. When she turned to the fifth page, Corwyn looked right at my grandparent's wedding photo, pointed directly at Grandpa (who was the third person in out of six people in the photo) and said "Bob" clear as day. Obviously, my grandfather visited my son, and I think he still does.
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