Memory in remission

I've been thinking a lot lately and not so much about the current state of affairs, although some of the things I have done as a result of those thoughts have changed the way I think of things today.

I thought of some time I spent as a teenager with my Grandfather (Opa as he is dutch). When I was about 13 Opa built my brother and I bikes for christmas. They where 10 speed racers and he stripped them down to the frame and sanded, repainted, decaled, replaced, repaired, overhauled and just plain poured his heart in to those bikes. I would go over and help him on the weekend and after school.

At the time kids at my school teased us over them as we hadn't got "new" bikes for christmas, well during my time thinking I realized just how much the time I spent with Opa meant to me and how much it must have meant to him, but not once had I ever told him how much I appreciated that time together. Now Opa is still alive as is Oma (my Grandmother) but she is very unwell as she has dementia and requires constant care from Opa now, but he has the attitude that he married for life and there is no way he is going to leave her now, he was there for the good and hell be there for the bad.

...Anyway where was I ? ahh yep the time I spent with Opa building bikes, I really appreciated it and it meant a lot to me, so I was thinking about it and it struck me if it is making me feel good thinking about it and helping me forget the harder things in life then it might be good for him, so I rang him, and it did.

I could hear it in his voice it did mean a lot to him. I was a bit worried about ringing him at first as he is getting older and his english is not very good (and I don't speak dutch) and I thought he may not follow what I was on about, but he did and I made his day. I told him how I had been thinking about the bikes and how the other kids teased us, but although at the time I didn't say thankyou, well not with heart and conviction, that the time together really did mean a lot. He said to me "Thankyou, Its never to late, is it !" and he was right it is never to late, and it made me think of something else, you cant take your family for granted. But that's a subject for another post.