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My Grandfather's Chair
Brown was the chair he used to sit on, my grandfather who outran the years as they came for him. It was there where he sat to read the paper, it was there where he sat to sip the coffee Grandma made for him. Whether day or night, early or late, hot or cold, that’s where he was, or at least that’s where I always saw him. He was old and he was tired, but emotionally he was fierce and tough, yet underneath that character iron curtain, he was soft and gentle at the same time. Turns we took us grandchildren to sit on his lap while he told us many tales of old, some were wild and some were calm. He always made sure to put a smile on us youngsters. I sometimes wonder if I have his great 300 million pesos luck on me, if I will ever get to hit the massive jackpot like he did, and boy did he hit it many times. But it was on his brown chair where he told us these stories, the car he won, the ham he once won and took home for dinner, or even the cash prize he won. But he never bragged about his prize, never did he show it off to anyone, that’s the kind of man he was. It was in that brown chair where he used to sit alongside his children while us cousins played around, where he used to tell them yet other stories of his time in battle, fighting for his home country with the pride of an American. He always spoke to us in Spanish, one might even assume that was his mother tongue, yet he was born and raised in the United States. He used to tell us of the time he came to Mexico and fell in love with the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, narrate the times when he worked as an engineer and occasionally tell us about his family back home. I wish I could have that passion for books as he did, reading a couple a week probably. Stacks after stacks of books filled the shelves in the living room. That chair that still stands strong after many use reminds me of him. Every Sunday I sit there and play with my little cousins wondering if that’s what he felt like when he sat there, happy and calm. Not a Sunday goes by when I don’t see that chair and remind myself of the great man Grandpa Jack was.
