Pawpaw Memories 1

I’ve really been thinking about my grandfather today. He passed away May 23, 2010. Pawpaw just keeps popping up in the most random ways.

I have been just sitting here reading things on the internet. I have the windows open and the wind chimes are swaying in a soft breeze. It’s very early in the morning (7:22am to be exact), and I hear a horrible screeching bird. Not the pretty chirping of normal birds but a strangled chattering and suddenly I think of Pawpaw. I know that sounds weird so, please, let me explain.

Towards the end of Pawpaw’s life I got the bright idea to have him move in with Boi and I. I know that sounds horrible but think about it. I mean really. You’ve read my blog. I can hardly take care of me let alone a dying man who needs 24 hour care. Anyway I digress.

After a while, my mom came to help out with Pawpaw. Very long story short, we decided to move him to Washington (state) to live with my parents. So we booked a flight and got him packed up and ready to go.

As you are discovering through my writings, everything is an adventure to me. So we (Pawpaw, mom, baby Gabe, and me) got to the airport and got out of the car. While I went and found a wheelchair for Pawpaw, my mother found a baby bird in the parking garage. Bingo. Insta-pet for Beth! So I carefully picked the baby bird up (what the heck was it doing in a concrete parking garage anyway!?) and placed it in my passenger seat. That bird was making the same strangled chattering that the bird this morning was making.

I helped mom get situated on the plane with Pawpaw (this was the last time I saw him) and the baby and headed back to my car. I excitedly ran to the passenger door and opened it. Instead of the small bundle of happiness I expected to find, all I found was an empty seat with 3 bird poopy spots on it; wonderful. I quickly searched the car as I only had enough money for about 5 more minutes in the parking garage. In the dim light, my search was in vain. Oh well, I thought, I’ll find him when I get home.

Just outside the airport I heard that horrible chattering coming from my backseat. Sweet! I pulled over and found the baby bird under my back seat. Success! I made a little bed for the birdie from random items in my car (I have EVERYTHING in my car; mainly because I never clean it).

On my way home, Boi called, and we decided to meet up for dinner and a movie. Boi was worried about leaving the birdie in the car all that time, but I explained that my car couldn’t possibly be worse than a concrete parking deck (I forgot to tell y’all that this bird was I clearly sick and couldn’t fly). He realized that there was no talking me out of it, and we went ahead with our plans.

The bird was still alive when we came out and still screeching away. When I got home, I put it in a box with a blanket and put it in the bathroom with my bathroom heater on to keep it warm. I grabbed a dropper and some Ensure (surely if it has all the vitamins and nutrients an old person needs, it’ll have what the bird needed right?) and sat down with my new friend.

I carefully opened its beak and let a drop Ensure drip in his mouth. He began to suck…kind of. Then it started to make a weird strangled sound…and died. After examining him closer, his entire throat had been cut open so his esophagus was showing. Kind of gross and you would have thought that I would have noticed that little detail earlier but I'd been kind of busy that day, you know?

Even though it was really late at night, I made Boi go out and dig a hole in the yard. We buried the baby bird, and I said a few words over the grave. Mainly things like, “How dare you die on me?” and “You sucked as a pet.”

What fond memories my Pawpaw evokes…