C.S.M.D.

[taabe]

Carter Stilson, Medical Doctor. My grandfather, my mother's father, who taught me everything I know about boats and maple syrup and almost everything I know about talking to people, who healed families in the city where he was born for 50 years, who built a hexagonal cabin in Maine, who showed me my brother on the day my brother was born, who brought antique barometers into the lab in his med school days to replace the mercury, who brought me to flea markets and teased me for saying actually at the start of every sentence and said it himself, who spent his holidays touring sardine factories and sailing with fishermen at 3 a.m., who brought us Chinese food while he was on call and took phone calls from worried parents — have you taken his temp? You haven't taken his temp? Then take it and call me back. His temp is over 100? Call me again in 20 minutes. — my grandfather, who lived all his life within two square miles, who talked schooner captains into giving him rides out of the harbor when wooden ships still traded on the Connecticut coast, who wore bow ties and gave his patients pretzels — my grandfather, who told me at Thanksgiving how Einstein successfully defended his theory of relativity from attack just as he was given the nobel prize — my grandfather, who came out for Christmas so my dad could feed him a waffle my mom made, one bite at a time —

my grandfather died on Friday, January 7. And I was half an hour too late to say goodbye.

I'll write more soon, but not yet. I don't know yet how to put into words how much I miss him.
Be well everyone, please.

Comments

[kouredios]

Oh, honey. I'm so, so sorry. *hugs*

[sanj]

Oh, honey. I am so, so sorry. My thoughts are with you and your family. *love*