Happy Birthday Grandpa

Today my Grandpa would have been 90 years old. I thought about him a lot today. My family and I miss him so much. 

If it’s possible to miss everything about someone, I do with him. 

The way he would formally introduce himself to people when making a phone call, “Hello, this is Ernest C. Morales of Montalvo, California…”

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His cooking…I’ll never find a substitute for his Chile Verde. I also miss him reminding us every time we ate chicken, that he won’t ever eat chicken anymore because it was the only thing he was given to eat in WWII.

I loved shaking his hand and squeezing it as hard as I could just to get him to give in. He never did. Or sneaking behind him to startle him and make him flinch, but always failing.

I miss our debates about Religion, his- Catholic, mine- anything but. And his stubbornness, the mountain spring source of my own.

The list is endless…

Most of all I miss feeling his undying love that he had for his family and friends. He was the foundation of our family. Our rock. No matter where we were, or what we were going through he was always there for any of us at the drop of his Marine Corps hat. Now it’s up to all of us to carry that on in his memory.
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My favorite tattoo is the one I have in memory of him. He left us 5 years ago this April, but he’s always with me, guiding.

I don’t care if I live to be 90. I just want to live like my Grandpa did.