#TheGallery - Tomorrow

After last week's emotional tale I was hoping to give you something a bit lighter this week. But, well, you'll see...

This is a picture of my Grandad, taken at the party we had to celebrate his (and Grandma's obviously) Ruby Wedding Anniversary, about 24 years ago. The whole family gathered at our place including all 10 grandchildren. It's how I remember him best - laughing with us kids...

My Grandad was a real gentleman - the type who opened doors for people, stood on the bus to allow others to sit, always wore a hat when he went out. He adored kids and they adored him (and not just because he always had a bag of mint imperials in his pocket...) and he adored my Grandma, who was as scatty as they come and called everyone 'duckie'. He worked hard all his life - on the trains and buses and various other jobs. Even once he had 'retired' he did door-to-door sales for home ware companies, building up a loyal and supportive customer base thanks to his charm and open honesty. 
We all lived fairly close together so if we missed him one day it would be 'Don't worry, you'll see him tomorrow!' I used to stay for weekends fairly regularly and he would always treat me to Salt'n'Shake crisps when the ice-cream van stopped opposite the house of a summer evening. He would pick us up from school once or twice a week so mum didn't have to get the little ones loaded up into the pram and in the summer holidays he would take us down to London on the train for the day.

He was the best Grandad ever.

Which makes me feel even worse when I think about how I let him down...

We moved away not long after that picture was taken - to the other side of the country (felt like the other side of the world at the time) and our Grandad time became less and less... day trips every couple of months were all we could manage. I was growing up, turning into a stroppy and headstrong teen who didn't necessarily want to 'hang out with the family' when I had my own mates to hang out with. I left home, got a life, saw the Grandparents maybe once or twice a year and barely noticed how old they were getting, how frail they had become...

'We are going over to see them next week ' my mum would say, 'Do you want to come too?'  But there would be an excuse, a reason I couldn't make it. 'I'll come along next time..'

Then, suddenly it seemed, his health started to deteriorate. He was in and out of hospital, then in more than out... I finally managed to sort out some time off work to go over with my parents. It had been a good six months or so, maybe more since I had last hugged him and talked to him. I knew he was ill but I was really looking forward to talking with him again.

It didn't happen... he died 2 days before our visit. It seems we had run out of tomorrows. Over ten years on and I still beat myself up over it occasionally. I have few regrets but this is definitely one of them...

If there is anyone in your life you really want to see - don't wait till tomorrow to tell them you care, to show them you love them. Do it today...right now...coz one of the few certainties in life is that we all run out of tomorrows eventually...



ps - sorry for doing such a 'sad' post. I will try and be a bit more cheery next time, promise x