Virnail Jack Stewart

They laid my Paw Paw to rest on Thursday. I used to think that was the weirdest thing to call your grandfather...until I heard other North Carolina natives called their grandpa "Paw Paw". I just used to think it was so funny.  Paw Paw. But really I was so blessed to have mine in my life. 

My grandpa was a people person. He loved being the center of attention. He loved telling stories (although it used to drive me crazy because he would tell them slowly- again I think it was North Carolina thing!). He loved having family get togethers. He was 83 years old and STILL would go to the pool hall regularly and still had once of the best gardens you ever saw. 

For as long as I can remember fishing was his thing. Fishing and gardening. He was always growing something and giving it away. He loved cooking for you, I remember spending summers at his house and he would make fried chicken, french toast, rice, veggies. spaghetti. Just everything.

Growing up a military brat...I didn't really get to spend as much time with my grandparents as some people do. But I did get to spend quite a lot of time with him when we moved to North Carolina for about three years when I was in high school. He spent hours and hours teaching me to drive. Every Saturday he would pick me up and we would drive down to South Carolina and play the numbers. He would always tell this story about me almost running over a police officers foot- I don't remember it and it would drive me crazy when he would tell that story but it hurts my heart that I will never hear him tell that story again. One time, we actually won the lottery, it was $500 and he stopped by and gave me $100 of it.

He used to make wine. He had blueberry bushes everywhere and would pick the blueberries and make wine. We did step one of wine making once. Crushing the blueberries with the sugar. It was quite a bit of work. The last time I was there for awhile he had planted a bunch of different grapes and was making muscadine wine. He had the best garden. Beautiful roses and always a new plant, my favorite thing was going over and he would show me everything he had planted. From the time I was little, he would grow watermelons, blueberries, figs, pecans, tomatoes, okra and so many plums. Just everything. Whenever he would stop by he would bring me a bag of fruit or something because he know I loved fruit so much. 

A few Thanksgivings ago, me and my sister went down to North Carolina for Thanksgiving and he gave us Kale out of his garden. The funny thing is he was always growing and giving veggies but I almost never saw him eating the veggies. I even remember us going out and him picking the veggies out of food.

When I got my first car he sent me $500 for a payment no questions asked.

My Paw Paw at 16

I was stuck in the states for almost three months trying to move back overseas and nearly everyday he was like..you want to go out and get something to eat? When I was in North Carolina for break he would always be like where you wanna go? Back then I used to always say Subway and we would go although he was more of a fan of fried seafood places or burger places. That last summer though we found a place we both greed on, Noodles and Company and we were went there a LOT. It was out place.

I can't tell you how many books he used to get me when I was younger. And he would sign every single one of the "Love Paw Paw". I need to go and find one.

 

My sister and my Paw Paw. I love this picture. 

He was very artistic. He could draw.I wish I had one of his drawings. He was always writing songs, he could play the Harmonica and the guitar. He even wrote a song for us. I wish I had recorded it. 

Me in my Pizza Hut shirt, I was still in high school here..or JUST graduated. 

He came to BOTH of my graduations. He flew all the way to Germany just to come to my high school graduation. I remember that night we all went out as a group to the sports bar in Wiesbaden and he was right there. I'm pretty sure that was the first time I went to a bar, Yours Sports Bar.  Kinda hilarious my Paw Paw was there. He drove me to college my very first year, him and Uncle Tan. It was a nice little road trip. And he was there again when I got my bachelor degree from Hampton University. 

High School Graduation. So many people flew out to my graduation. 

Us at my college graduation.

He taught me how to bake the best pound cakes. We made so many cakes together. I used to have underbaked cakes until we started making cakes together. We tried new cake recipes together, like this amazing apple cake with homemade caramel.We made it for thanksgiving one year and it went so fast!  The last couple of years I had started making cheesecakes and he tried one of the oreo ones...then I made him one. Then...we made one together and then he started making cheesecakes like I did in the spring form pan (I almost forgot he did make some before we made that one together, but they were the smaller ones)


I have so many memories. It was so hard seeing him sick. But heaven got an Angel back. It's just so frustrating to know that he was so close to being vaccinated. So close.  I know this post is probably all over the place..it's just therapeutic for me to write my feelings somewhere.

I don't even know how to close this out, so I'm going to end it here.