Unforgettable...

14 / 12 / 2011

Program cover design

This post is dedicated to my loving Grandfather Geoffrey Palmer who passed away last week.

1921 - 2011. He loved three things, his grandchildren, his church and his garden - and it was these three aspects are where he spent all of his time.

Every year he would take Mum, Sheldon and I on holidays to Port Macquarie, he'd wake us up in the morning and make us breakfast, then we'd be off to the beach. He would always play with Sheldon in the surf and then collect shells with me! He picked some amazing shells! He even accidentally picked up what he thought was a shell and took it home in the 'shell bag' and later on a crab crawled out of the bag with one of the shells on his back. He could not stop laughing. We would also go to the theme parks and he was into everything!! He would be more excited than us half the time.

Grandpa always had time for us, and he loved taking me shopping - especially to GO LO, that was his favourite shop. Whatever I picked up he would say 'do you like that do you?' 'well, put it in the basket.' He loved buying Sheldon and I stickers to put in our sticker books. He always encouraged me to draw by buying pencils, art books and paint.

He loved his garden, and would always take me out the back to show me his strawberries. His favourite flower was the Orchid. He had a huge greenhouse out the back where he would make his own variations and he had every colour imaginable. The flowers were always around the house.

Grandpa always had a great sense of humour, always laughing and making jokes. He would always sing this little made up song when he walked through the kitchen 'honkey ponkey, honkey ponkey tonkey.' He collected things - currency, stamps - you name it. He would buy me a yowie every week - he would go and tell me to open the cupboard and sure enough two would be sitting there, one for me and one for him. Thanks to Grandpa I have every yowie in the collection - and there was about 6 series haha! He realised the rarer yowies made a different sound when you shook them, so when he would go to the shops he would stand there shaking each one haha! And we got all the rare ones too!

Grandpa hated getting up and answering the doorbell, Sheldon and I used to ring it and run off. He knew it was us and we always got smacked. The next time we rang the bell, we put books down our pants so when we got smacked it wouldn't hurt.... that theory was wrong, Grandpa took the books out and we got an even harder smack. He also hated up swinging on the clothesline - but thats another story. Sheldon and I were naughty when we were together, but Grandpa soon sorted us out!

Grandpa was a great cricketer, he would always want to play when the whole family was together. Seeing as i wasn't such a great cricketer we had our own game where he would hide the tennis ball in the back yard and I would have to find it.

Unfortunately he got dementia. He had such a healthy strong body, but it was his mind that went first. We would go and see him in the nursing home and sometimes he would remember us, and sometimes he would have no idea, other times he thought I was Mum. He slowly deteriorated and towards the end he just slept.

He stopped eating while Mum and I were in Hawaii, and the doctor thought he would pass away on the Saturday. We came home on the Tuesday and Nanny told us about Grandpa, straight away we went to the nursing home to see him. He passed away the next day. It's like he waited for us. It's amazing how some things happen, even Nanny got to see him for the last time.

I'll never forget you Grandpa, and all our special memories. You're only sleeping now, I'll see you again.