4 years ago

4 years ago my whole family was in Washington for the 4th of July and we asked my Grandpa what he wanted to do while we were there. His request was to go to the beach and fly a kite. So we all piled into cars and drove the 2 hours to the beach. Grandpa could barely walk at this point and was blind but he sat in the car and flew his kite with a huge smile on his face. Many of my memories of him are from that beach, flying kites, picking seashells and playing in the sand and waves. It was a great last memory to have with him that day. That was the last time I was with him alive, 3 months later I had to fly from AZ to his funeral and it made me so happy that we had all honored his request and taken him to the beach to fly his kite. At the time when he told us what he wanted to do I was a little confused by his request, I mean he was an old man and wanted to fly a kite on the beach but last week I realized that the beach is one of those things that is easy to enjoy without seeing, you can take in the smells, feel the sand and hear the waves and know you are there.
Now 4 years later I was on the beach with my little guy flying a kite, he had a huge smile and loved the feeling of the string pulling on his hand. As I watched him fly his kite I told him about his Great Grandpa and how he liked to fly kites on the beach too and held back tears. I hope Kayden can always be a kid at heart just like his Great Grandpa Paplow was!