It was just last year when I wrote about my Grandma Fees,
today I write about her husband Gordon Chester Fees my grandpa. A man of not only
great faith, but wonderful if sometimes taxing humor.
Since my children had been blessed with both having a
Grandpa Fees and a Great Grandpa Fees there needed to be a way to tell the difference
in conversations with them. Otherwise they never knew for sure if we were going
my dad’s or my Grandpa’s. So my grandpa became know as the fix it grandpa, if
my older children broke their toys, bikes, or needed to build something it
wasn’t to my dad they went but to Grandpa. He took up wood working after he
retired, since he needed to keep busy and out of Grandma’s way. First he was
set up in the garage, and then he was somehow able to get grandma to let him
move his stuff into the basement. But only if he stayed in the one part and
kept that sawdust out of her house.
Grandpa was never one to stay still, he always was
puttering, even when he got to the point that he had to have someone else mow
the lawn or shovel he was always right there to tell you how it should be done,
and if you didn’t show up to do it he would threaten to do it himself. I
remember that one day he came home with a new saw and that didn’t make grandma
very happy, so she looked over at my dad said look at what your dad got you. Or
the ladders how many times did we take a ladder to keep him off the roof and he
would just head to Sears to buy another one.
Grandma might have broken her ribs by coughing, but grandpa
did his falling of the roof of the trailer.
Grandpa was a favorite of us kids and then our children as
who else is going to let you climb up on the garage roof, or use the power saw,
who always had time to get the bikes out of the garage. I think he loved to
shop at garage sales just to make sure he had a supply of toys on hand to send
home with the kids when they came over to play.
When a lot of adults
might not have had time for us kids’ grandpa always did, but even then there
were some toys that were his and not for sharing. Even when grandpa was sitting
he was busy painting, coming up with new jokes, and in his later years baking.
Who here has enjoyed banana bread, fruit cake, or even cucumber bread baked by
Grandpa?
There were many nights of sleepovers, with grandpa peeling
apples and cutting them up and passing them out to eat, and candy’s passed to
you out of his pockets while in church.
Grandpa was rarely
serious, you never knew what he was going to say when you called the house
sometimes it went like this “Hello is Grandma there, Well of course she is,
Grandpa can I please speak to her, well of course you can, Grandpa please give
the phone to Grandma, Well ok why didn't you say that in the beginning.”
I remember this summer going to visit and we headed out to
check out the garden, I also like to garden and enjoy weeding somewhat. So I
started to weed, a little to fast for Grandpa as he told me I had better leave
him some of those weeds or he wouldn't have anything to do. He was always
planning what his next project was going to be, and you better not tell him he
was too old to do it.
He loved to sing and to square dance, he loved to be around
people, he loved to tell stories to us about growing up, all the chicken they
used to eat, the orphanage, the CCC, World War II, years spent working. And he
did a wonderful thing he wrote down those stories so that even those great-
grandchildren to young to remember him in person will read about him and know
him.
He showed in his life what it was to be faithful; he cared
for grandma and still loved her even when things were rough. He knew that the
women he married was still in there somewhere and she would come out every once
in a while. I look at how grandpa cared for her so tenderly and I tell my husband
that there is nothing more in life I want then for you to care for me like that
when we are old and I goof up more than people’s names.
Last year around this time he was worried that people would
think it was wrong if he went to the Valentine lunch at the Senior Center with
a woman. He asked me what did I think, I reassured him that no one would look
down at him and that he should go and have fun. From what I heard from later he
did.
He used to tell me in that non serious way of his that my
dad was no fun, and each year he couldn’t wait until my dad went on a trip and then
he could do whatever he wanted and my dad wouldn't know. A lot of those plans involved him getting a
flight to my house to come for a visit; he just couldn't find a pilot. He looked
forward to lunch out on Tuesday’s, and the senior center in the Falls was never
as good as the one on Grand Island.
Two things that I have that my grandpa made for me way back
in 1983 when he first retired are my cradle and chair, things that he made for
each of his granddaughters. I enjoyed playing with them, and then my daughters
and I look forward to the day my grandkids get to play with them. And of course
they went back to grandpa for repairs over time.
This year as I plant my garden I will think of grandpa in
his, when the dandelions bloom I will think of his recipe for cough syrup, when
I see square dancing I will think of all those nights spent dancing with him,
when grandma couldn’t. I will never look at a napkin without picturing grandpa.
Tonight I go to sleep knowing that he is home, and that
grandma and he are talking about all the wonderful things that did together.
And I ask that we all do something that Grandpa worked hard to do write down, record, remember your stories that others will remember and learn from them. Grandma left behind many homemade items, Grandpa has left behind the stories.
*Pictures to be added later, on a different computer*
