Grand

Both my grandfathers were born in January. One in 1892 and one in 1899. They each lived to ripe old ages - 103 and 96 respectively. They were such gentle souls and always over flowing with kindness toward me and my siblings and I still miss them a great deal even though they each delocalized over 10 years ago. I still think of them a great deal but especially in January, when we'd have celebrated their birthdays with dinner and cake and so forth.

My maternal grandfather had a deep rumbly voice but it was always gentle at least when directed at any of us. He was a great one for exercise so when we would visit we would go for walks to get the newspapers, mornings and afternoons. And should we encounter any dogs on the way he would give them a 'little woof-woof'. These would invariably be massive dogs, and they would respond with a woof woof right back and come over for a sniff and a scratch of the ears. And then my grand would laugh, then we'd be on to the next collection of dogs.

My paternal grandfather had a fairly soft voice, a quick wit and an intrinsic sense of the healing powers of chocolate. When he lived with us I spent a lot of time with him, probably because he never yelled. And I'm all about no yelling.