Memories of Nana and Dopop

My father has terminal cancer. When I heard that the partnership he has maintained with his corporeal body for the last 67 years has begun to talk of dissolving, I knew there were so many things left potentially unsaid. My father is a very introverted person that few understand. I myself understand him little, as he has always lived mostly in his head. I realize that what goes on in that head will remain in that head, and return to dust with that head, unless I can get his thoughts into the air. I want them so I will have something to remember him by.

For this reason, this is my father’s blog. I want him to tell the world what he wants the world to know, and what he does not want to keep in his heart when it ceases to beat.

When I asked him today, here is what he wanted to say…. [nana= his mother/ my grandmother; dopop= his father/ my grandfather]

 “Nana(my grandmother, born in 1903). She was a businesswoman in the 1920s, new car every year, and was highly successful. When her first marriage broke up, she got Walter (1st husband) to raise her son Don, because she didn't want to be tied down. The greatest thing about her was how much she loved me. She was ten years older than Dopop (my grandfather). She worshipped him because he was so intelligent. No common sense, but he was amazing. Not very social, but a great brain. If he thought of something important, he would just sit there and think about it for hours. Nana, fortunately, could talk him out of it sometimes, but the point is whenever he has a thought it was very successful. Dopop always had a pipe in his mouth. Nana was a pistol even back then. When Dad was born, he was her project; her first try at something domestic. She spoiled him, which Dopop hated.”

Dopop. He was as introverted as Nana was extroverted. And brilliant. And in love. When Nana died, Dopop wished to die, and although he didn't follow for years, he never walked again after she passed. He was a brain, which attracted Nana. She didn't like society types, although she was one, but he had independent ideas and was sure his patents would change the chemical world. Dopop was pretty good.  He loved his granddaughter and his son, but he didn't communicate very well.

 Then there is my father’s story of himself. The first thing he wants to say is that he loves me.

 When he was at the University of South Florida for his masters, then went to miami to work on his PHD in psychology. …. These are his thoughts on that…

“I guess I was surprised that there wasn't much that was noble. I had gone into science looking for noble things, and discovered that it is a very selfish thing. At the same time it is social. You have to teach, to try to communicate somehow with people through your articles and through your teaching. I enjoyed it. The best part about it was trying to come up with an independent idea that nobody else has had. Try it. It’s much harder than you think. Any original idea you ever have, test it. Someone has thought of it before.”