Meh!

I have had a kinda crappy day today. I didn't get much sleep last night, and my son has been in a terrible mood. Combine that with the fact that today would have been my grandfather's birthday, and TADA I have a terrible day.
My grandfather passed away unexpectedly on July 31st 2010. It came as quite a shock, and was (and still is) really hard for me to deal with.

My grandfather was a hard worker.  He was born and raised in Italy. His father passed away when he was only nine years old. With his mom and four sisters at home, he became the man of the house.  He left school, and started working.  He continued to work to support his mother and sisters until they no longer needed him to.  His sisters had all married  by the time he and my grandmother married in 1952. They had their first child, a son, nine and a half months later. He passed away, at almost four months old, of what would now be called SIDS.  They went on to have four more children before emigrating to Canada in 1968.  They had their last child in 1971, just a few years before I came along!
I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house when I was growing up. My grandfather didn't speak much English, and I didn't speak much Italian, but we managed just fine. He spoke to me in Italian, which I totally understand, and I spoke to him in English which he understood. I remember spending a lot of time in the backyard of  my grandparents' home. My grandmother had a beautiful flower garden, and my grandfather had a HUGE fruit and vegetable garden. At the very back of his garden, my grandfather had this hole he had dug, and a small pile of dirt beside it. He would always gather up the "scraps", and throw them in there, and then throw a bit of dirt on top (we all thought it was a little weird!).  I had no idea why he did it, but I wanted to do it just because he did.   I felt honoured whenever he let me do it! His garden meant a lot to him, and I loved that he included me in it! Of course, years later I realized what he was doing is called composting!
I miss my grandfather everyday, but more so on special days like today.

In case you are wondering why the posted is titled Meh!, it is because "meh" was a word my grandfather used to indicate he didn't know or it didn't matter, and sometimes just because he didn't know what else to say.