Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

Share With Us Your Family’s Best. Who Is the Oldest Living Person In Your Family? What Makes Him/Her So Special To You?

The oldest living person in my family is my maternal grandfather, who is affectionately known as ‘Papa’ to his grandchildren. He is special to me because of the history we’ve shared and because he is simply who he is. There’s no one thing that I can put my finger on that shines out above the rest, but rather he is special because of everything he has done throughout my life. Really, both of my grandparents are, but this is about my grandfather.

My sister and I were his first grandchildren, so I suppose we are special in that way. We are definitely the oldest and benefited from having very virile and young grandparents who could take us places like Disney Land and Sea World as children. When I was about 11, my sister and I spent a month with them in Orange County, California. Papa wasn’t at all against spending money on my sister and I, which isn’t the important part. The important thing I took out from that was, is, his willingness to make us happy. To him, money was no object because our happiness was worth all of the money in the world. It was was like that and is still. I can’t tell you how many times he has saved me, though he is very humble about it. Papa helps because he wants to, not because he wants to brag about it and have people indebted to him. When I was in college and my computer crashed, he bought me one. When I needed to get home from Utah, he bought me a ticket and gave me money for the trip. When I had to take my GREs just a few weeks ago and didn’t have the money, he sent it to me. Over and over again, he’s done everything he can to help. He even bought my mother a house.

My Papa is such a health nut that my family jokes he will outlive us all. As a kid, we used to help him grind up bran to make muffins… totally horrid tasting muffins that we jokingly referred to as ‘Nothing Muffins,’ because they had nothing good or tasty about them. He worked out and ran and always ate very light. Still, he battled three rounds of cancer and an eventual infection that led to the loss of his leg. But, even after all of that, he’s still impossible to keep in one place. He had his SUV adapted to his prosthetic leg, has given what was left of his cut off leg a nickname, and shows off the battery powered high tech new leg that he has.

And he still golfs and takes care of the veteran’s graves over at the cemetery.

You’ve got to envy and be proud of a man who can take on so much adversity and still want to selflessly help people. Despite his age, he can’t settle down. His and my grandmother’s volunteer service is so wide known that they got to marshal the July 4th parade in Salt Lake City, Utah. Jon Huntsman Jr. might be the most well known Huntsman in Utah (he’s the Governor), but my Papa is definitely the most giving and selfless Huntsman (and takes great pride in having helped his family member win the post of Governor).

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