Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Thomas Kennedy

Losing a loved one is always difficult, especially when that loved one was such an amazing person. My grandfather taught me a lot, the main thing that I will learned from him is to love life, do what you love and aspire to be great. I first learned of his passing when I was on the golf course yesterday. I had been worried about his health and being over here in Japan it is hard to stay in the loop. I basically checked facebook every hour to see if there was a message from my family. So at the half way house yesterday I checked my phone and there it was, a message from my sister, saying that our beloved grandfather had indeed passed away. It is strange that he would pass away as I was playing golf. I found it appropriate that I would be golfing when his time was up. He was the person that sparked my interest in the game of golf. I have vivid memories of going to the Lafayette club with him and practicing at the driving range for hours. He would always tell me, “you need to teach me how to hit it like that.” I would respond, “you need to teach me how to hit it straight!” One of my favorite memories I have of grandpa is from the Father-Son-Grandson Lafayette Club tournament. My mom dropped me off at his house the night before and of course we went to his favorite spot for dinner, Snuffy’s. And of course we both had a cheeseburger and a chocolate malt. Anyone who has ever spent any time around my grandparents will know that Snuffy’s is the Mecca of restaurants for them. After that we went back home and sat in his den and we explored the various books in his library. It was at this time that I discovered his love for history. Being a 12 year old at the time my only interests involved sports and girls. However, after that night I developed a fondness for history, especially UK/Irish and Scandinavian history. We went to bed at 9am sharp. Of course I sat awake until about 10:30 and fell asleep. That next morning I was suddenly awoken by grandpa. He turned on the lights in the room and said, “time to get up.” I got up in a daze, looked at the clock and responded, “but it’s only 5am, we don’t have to be at the course for another 3 hours! Let me sleep in a little more.” To which, he countered, “I already let you sleep in, I’ve been up since 4:30.” That is just the kind of guy he was, always ready to go and he always kept a joke in his back pocket. We went to the course and had a wonderful time with my Uncle David. I’ll never forget that day. Growing up in the city, we didn’t have the opportunity to get lost in the woods or really lose ourselves in a fantasy as children. Luckily for the Kennedy-Budge Petri dish (a nickname for Charlotte, Stephanie, Liane, Colleen, Conor, Timmy, myself, and Julia) we had our Grandparent’s house out in Minnetonka to fulfill our needs. They had this great white house, a stereotypical white house in the boonies that you see in the movies, with a backyard that went on forever. We would wander into the woods behind the house and spend hours playing our favorite game, “Gnomes and Trolls.” I won’t go into details, but basically the old kids were the Good Gnomes and the young kids (Julia and Colleen) were the Evil Trolls. We would come back from a long day of exploring and throwing sticks at the Trolls and we would wander into Grandpa’s Den for a story or a history lesson. He had so many stories, so many books, so many ways to enlighten us. I remember getting pulled into his stories. He took me to distant countries, race car tracks, dirt bike mountain courses and to the 1950s. I will never forget him sitting in that patented leather chair with a book on his lap. He was such a calming presence at family events, even in his final year. He had a hard time speaking in his final year, but every once in a while, he would surprise me with a rant about some historical fact. I was talking to him about this shrine in Japan where the famous Emperor Tokugawa Ieyasu is buried. He responded by telling me, “oh I know him, he was the one who united Japan and moved the capital to Tokyo.” I kind of giggled in response and that is exactly right. Only my Grandpa would be able to recite such a historical fact in his final year while battling the awful Parkinsons disease. In the end, a guy couldn’t really ask for a better Grandfather. He showed me to do what you love and do it well. He was a golfer, runner, race car driver, dirt bike racer, history buff, bookworm and a world class dude. He was amazing at all those things because of his can do, no complaints attitude. When I sit back and reflect on my own hobbies I kind of laugh at the correlation. Golfer, runner, hockey player, water skier, history enthusiast, bookworm. I can’t help, but think that a lot of what I do and who I am is a reflection of my grandfather. As I was playing golf on Sunday and I had just found out that he had passed, I thought to myself, this is exactly what he would want me to be doing.
I think this picture represents our crazy family well. I'll miss you Gramps JB

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