I remember my grandfather starting
to make his own cigarette. I don't remember any story
from my grandfather that began with "Once
upon a time" but rather the real story about the
family's life. He
loved to tell us how hard it was when my grandmother passed away
very
young, only 35 years old (she had cancer), and my grandfather
found
himself alone to take care of the seven kids. The oldest was
fifteen
and the youngest was one year old.
That time his family tried to help him, but
he was very sad, so he
decided to move to another state. That happened in 1925.
The family
traveled by train for one week, the money was tight and the
kids
couldn't eat what they needed, so when they got to my grandfather's
friend's house, the kids were very hungry. I remember my
grampa smiling
as he said that. "The kids asked
me: Dad, can we eat a lot?"
I can see his face telling us how hard it was
to build his own house.
He made the bricks by himself, he cut the wood, he did everything
by
himself and was sometimes helped by his friends.
He took care of the kids and at night time he
couldn't sleep (I think he
had depression). He worked until very late at night.
When my grandfather passed away he was almost
90 years old. Some things
were very interesting about him. He didn't get married again,
he tried
to do everything by himself, like cooking. He lived alone after
the
kids got married. He loved to plant flowers, and he built a kind
of
hospital and took care of the poor and sick people. He asked
for help
to feed the poor people at the hospital which he took care of
for more
than 30 years. And when he died, he was still poor but very rich
because his small house sometimes was too small for all the family.
He
had four generations and so many friends. Oh...one fact: he never
had a
TV. He said that television would be the worst teacher in the
world.
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