the plumber's granddaughter

Yes, that would be me.

It's not something that defines me, but it really is one of the biggest things I know about my grandpa.

My mom's dad, Grandpa Ted (a plumber), died before I was born (although I've always felt special knowing that he knew I was on the way). He was only 54 when he died 21 years ago.

For some reason he has been on my mind over the past few days. My mom and I were talking about my student loans (side note: WHY is college so expensive? Yeesh!), and I made a joke about marrying rich to solve all my financial woes.

She laughed and told me that Grandpa Ted always used to tell her "You know, you can fall in love with a rich guy just as easily as you can fall in love with a poor guy!"

Sounds like grandpa was a funny guy.

He always comes to mind when my roommate and I are dealing with toilet troubles - in our case, the chain always gets caught in some do-hickey (obviously this is the technical term), causing it to run until someone jiggles the handle just so. Or the chain disconnects completely, leading someone (usually me, because toilets don't scare me) to stick my hand in the tank to reattach it.

It seems silly, but at those moments I really feel some semblance of a connection to him - the plumber - as his toilet-fixin', problem-solvin' granddaughter.

And while we're on the subject of grandpa, take a look at him...

I think grandma did pretty well for herself, don't you? He was quite the looker, in my opinion! My mom and her siblings look a lot like him...they have his smile.

So I may not have known him, but I know about him. I know what he did, what he stood for, and when I can see little pieces of him in those around me (and on those plumbing occasions, in myself as well), I feel connected to him...and those connections are enough to really make me the plumber's granddaughter.

♥ abigail