We did everything together, I saw him every day throughout my childhood before he passed. He was no different than a father to me, I was blessed with two.
I think about all the things that people do and the things that people say. And sometimes they don't match. We often want to hear how other people feel not necessarily always just about them showing it. But sometimes not hearing it is better of the two. When your words and your actions don't match, people notice eventually. However, my Opa proved that that was not necessarily a bad thing.
He showed me he loved me, in the smallest ways. The way he held my hand, he would squeeze it ever so tightly that I couldn't feel it anymore. He held me close, took me for walks, sat with me on a bench looking at the birds, bounced me on his knee until he was exhausted, sang me songs. Sometimes he'd tell me long stories in German that I didn't completely understand, and I'd just listen; perhaps that was my way of showing him I loved him too. We laughed a lot. All simple things that people don't realize they take for granted spending time with the ones you love.
Love is in the small things. Grand gestures are overrated. It's in the little things that you do. He never really said "I love you, Heidi". And he never had to. I simply knew by the way he showed me. Every day.
If one was to lose all their senses: their hearing, their sight, their voice; things we may be fortunate to have as some are not- all that's left is how we made someone feel ...We love to hear beautiful words, as a writer and an artist I know this and crave it as well...but my Opa taught me gold: it's not what you say, but the things that you do that people take from you and carry in their heart, possibly forever.
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