Morfar

I am the only child of the only daughter of my grandparents.  I was also the first born grandchild, the oldest of what turned out to be 16 grandchildren, and the only one, of all those grandchildren, who gets to call our grandfather, Morfar.  Morfar means mother's father, and since all of my cousins are the children of my mother's brothers, my position is sort of unique.

I'm not special.  I just have a lot of memories of how things were before our family was as huge and wonderful as it is now, lots of pictures in my head that i don't have snapshots of.

When i was three, i was the older of only two grandchildren.  I don't remember how it came about, but i do remember giving my Morfar a list (probably didn't write it down) of 3 items that i really wanted.

A whistle.

Sunglasses.

And a tiny black teddy bear.

So Morfar took me shopping.  We went from store to store to store, searching and searching and searching for the treasures i could see in my head.  The sunglasses probably weren't too difficult.  I remember them to be black and plastic.  The whistle was one of those round plastic ones, and i think it was some bright color combination, like purple and orange.  And then there was the teddy bear.  That was the hard one.  I could see him in my head.  I knew what he looked like, and finding him is the thing that caused all the traveling from store to store to store.

This was a lot of years ago now, and i don't honestly know how many of the details in my memory are historically accurate, but i can still see in my mind, the end cap teddy bear display where we found my teddy bear.  He was kind of in the middle left area, slightly more than half way up the display.  He was the one i was looking for.

I was a very creative and imaginative child, so i named him Blacky.

And i still have him.

Blacky has stayed with me through 30-something moves, 9 states, and four house fires.  He doesn't even smell like smoke anymore.

My Morfar bought him for me.

Today, Morfar turns 94.

One of my most treasured memories.  One of my most treasured people.

Happy Birthday, Morfar.  I love you more than i can type.