A to Z '14 - Joviality

For this year's A to Z Challenge, I am honoring my grandfather who passed away on April 3, 2013.


J is for Joviality.

My grandfather loved a good laugh. He absolutely loved slapstick comedy.



In his eulogy I wrote, "I really only remember him as jovial. His bright voice greeting me with his special, “Hello, Lauren!” I can so vividly picture his bright blue eyes, his contagious smile and hear his laugh."


He laughed to laugh and to make others laugh. He wouldn't pull mean pranks, per se. Rather, he had quick, dry wit that could always entertain you.


That's really one of things I admire most in him. He was always happy, always laughing, always positive. I aspire to be like that.



His joviality was absolutely contagious. Thinking of his smile and his laugh is making me smile as I write this!

A good sense of humor will get you through anything and everything in life. If there is one lesson I could give you from my grandfather, it would be to be a happy, jovial person. Joviality blesses you and the people around you. Just like he blessed us.

J is for Joviality.

A to Z '14 - Integrity

For this year's A to Z Challenge, I am honoring my grandfather who passed away on April 3, 2013.


I is for Integrity.

Integrity is defined as, "The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness."



My grandfather embraced integrity.

He was always honest. He was honest, but never hurtful. I knew I could always trust what he said, and know that it always came from a point of wisdom and love.



He had strong moral principles. He was knighted in the Catholic church, but his own upbringing instilled more morals and ethics than the church ever did. He understood the value of family, and of hard work. He always aimed to help others - and he did! More times than I could even venture a guess, he helped others. His morality was an innate one, not one of blind faith. Never once did I see him say or do anything that could be questionable or immoral. He was simply a good man with a great heart.

Moral uprightness? You had better believe it! An upstanding citizen, a good, generous man. His priorities were always straight. He was a pillar of the community and a role model for all. In my eulogy, I called him a hero. I did so because he was. Whether running into a burning building to save the family pet or teaching me the values of hard work and dedication, he was always a hero.

Integrity and heroism are very tightly related for me. I simply cannot see how you can have one without the other. Integrity is very important to me because my Grandfather was the embodiment of it. I do my best daily to be a woman of true integrity. If I can help others by being and doing the way he did, I know I will have done well as a person.



I is for integrity.

A to Z '14 - Honesty

For this year's A to Z Challenge, I am honoring my grandfather who passed away on April 3, 2013.


H is for Honesty.


My grandfather always told us to be honest. He was a man of his word, and he was a great role model for it. He taught us the importance of honesty and integrity. He always told me to be a person of my word and to have a good handshake. For me, those are both so tightly intertwined. A good handshake is the mark of an honest person.

Honesty is so important. For me, I have to wonder about people who lie (whether patholoically or not). Now, I'm not saying I'm perfect. I've lied. For whatever reasons, I have. But I have met some people whose entire lives were based on lies. Or they had huge lies within their marriages (a lack of fidelity, for example). That's the kind of stuff that I don't understand. How can you live with yourself? How can you keep your stories straight? How can anyone ever truly believe you?



I don't know and I don't want to know. At the end of the day, we are the ones who have to live with ourselves, our decisions and our actions. Honesty is important - it's a tremendous indicator of character.



I choose to be honest, because the greatest man I have ever known was.

H is for honesty.

A to Z '14 - Giving

For this year's A to Z Challenge, I am honoring my grandfather who passed away on April 3, 2013.


G is for Giving.


My grandfather was the epitome of selflessness. He gave and gave and gave.

He donated his time, money and energy into helping inner city you, the MS Society, his church, his family...the list is longer than I know. He gave because he could and because he knew it was his duty.

Realistically, it's everyone's duty. We all have the opportunity to give in various ways. It doesn't have to be money. Donate your time to helping another person. Give your old clothes and books to a charity or shelter. Use your talents to enhance someone else's life. Everyone can give something to someone somewhere.



Giving doesn't hurt. Quite the contrary. It helps both the giver and the receiver. It brightens everyone's day - it brightens everyone's life!



So please, give. Give in any way you can. It will bless you more than words can ever say. I know because I've seen how it impacted my grandfather and our family.

G is for Giving.

A to Z '14 - Family

For this year's A to Z Challenge, I am honoring my grandfather who passed away on April 3, 2013.


F is for family.



I can never say it enough. My grandfather was the rock - the foundation of our family. He encompassed the true definition of family. He loved us all unconditionally. He gave us his love, his time, his energy, his support, his all. He accepted us all.
Words really can never fully describe who he was, or what he did.



He was our patriarch, our cornerstone, our foundation. Our family is because of him. On our family tree, he is the main root.



I could not imagine my life or our family without him. If he had not been present in my life, I could only imagine how different my life would be (and NOT in a good way).

All families are different. I understand and respect that. But that which we idolize about family, that which we aspire to be as individuals and as families are all that he was.

I am forever grateful for my grandfather and for our family.



F is for Family.