My Grandpa

For many reasons, I was never able to get to know my grandparents very well; probably the one I knew the best was my Grandma White who died Jan 3, 2007. My Grandpa Albert died before I was even born, and my Grandpa White died a couple of years before my Grandma White. Grandpa Albert was an alcoholic and died of it; Grandpa White died after a struggle with diabetes, and Grandma White died after a struggle with Bone Cancer.

My Grandma Albert is still alive but I have only seen her in person about...four times? Once when I was about three (my first time on an airplane and the airplane is the only thing I remember), another time between then she came to visit us (all I remember was someone had fake teeth and they were in my bathroom...haha), then when I was nine - before Cameron went on his mission - we drove cross country to New York and visited them (I remember Sarah Jayne...and a lot of talking from my aunt Kristy or however she spells it - not a lot of my grandma though...she did watch Alice in Wonderland with Sarah and me - Alice had a yellow dress?) and the Niagra Falls, and riding in the car; then the last and most recent time was when she came here to Utah for Aaron and Megan's wedding. The point is...I don't know her very well - and though that makes me sad, I have one last grandparent..... :)

Mr. Miller, my science teacher from 7th and 8th grade. Through the years he has been a friend and I am now adopting that old man, as my grandpa. I wish I could have gotten to know my other grandparents as well as I know him and as well as he knows me. He is the one who told me the Geode story - remember? I wrote about that before :)

Papa Miller among only a handful of guys is going to interview my future husband, and if he doesn't pass - no marriage will be happening. :) If I could marry a man that is a third of what Mr Miller is, I will have found a diamond in the rough. Mr. Miller told me once that he asks his wife to marry him every single night. If she doesn't say yes, then he has done something horribly wrong...because he knows that she is something to cherish, and if she can't say yes to him...yah - something is wrong; especially if she said once already ;)

Mr. Miller also told me never to marry anyone who makes me feel other than the diamond that I am. He used to call me a Geode, but he says that my inner beauty has come out now. The flattering old man haha. (He hates it when I call him old - he says that inside he ranges from being 12 - 30 something haha)

He always encouraged me in my studies of Chemistry as well :) I have ALWAYS hated Chemistry - and on one of my roughest battling days with it, he was there to encourage me through, to keep going, that there was always something to learn from it.

In the hallways at school he and I would always give each other high fives...the story and tradition being that I could never aim right. I was ALWAYS off, I would hit half on and half off or completely miss. Sometime near the middle of the school year I was finally able to do it on my first try! It made me so very happy :) you have no idea! So that was our thing. He would often stop me in the hallways and just talk for a bit. Those conversations meant a lot to me, that someone cares at those random moments to talk to you - there's something special about it. And he could always tell if I wasn't feeling ok, in fact he could always get it out of me too - maybe not the whole story with names and whatnot - but he always had the gift to bring a tear to my eye, erase it with a smile on my face and end it with a hug goodbye until the next time he saw me. I love that old man, haha - he's one of the few that makes me cry with all the sweet old man things he says to me.

Brittani once got him to promise that he would give her his green mustang convertible when he dies, and he told me I could have the jeep, or whatever it is. The silly man thinks I could actually accept something at his death? It would break my heart. I don't ever want to say goodbye to him. But he promises he's going to make it to 100 so we've got a while, especially since he's only like 65 (though you'd think he's older with that white hair of his haha)

So I love the guy. He's my grandpa, when I have none. I could honestly turn to him whenever I needed to - and I think that's what really makes a grandparent, being there for you. He would never yell at me, and that has always been something special to me. He's a diamond in the rough :) and he's my Grandpa Miller.

Here's a song first of all I think he would like, and that reminds me of our conversation on when I get married. What a sweetheart :)

Kaylla

PS - the picture is from the last day of school - I was crying just seconds before it was taken, another sweet thing he had decided to tell me. He's one of the few people who has the talent to make me cry on the spot. It's horrible but I love it. :)