In Loving Memory of Papa Reid

Earlier today at 9:30am ET (2:30pm local time in Scotland) my last grandparent, Papa Reid, passed away. My Papa had been ill for many years with acute emphysema caused by a lifetime of smoking and working in the foundry of an iron works. He was taken into hospital last Tuesday with multiple organ failure (lungs, kidneys & heart), and the doctors finally stopped treatment on Friday. So today's news was not unexpected. Rob and I were already at Church, setting up for our Sunday School class when my mum called me to let me know. I was fine all through Sunday School, but had a bit of a cry in Church during the worship time.

My Papa has always had a special place in my heart, and I in his. I have so many wonderful memories from childhood of times spent with my Papa. He always brought me and my brother a treat home with him on a Friday evening on his way home from work. There were always loose coins in his pocket for his grandchildren. Later on as I grew into adulthood there were days spent together where he would tell me stories of his younger years, and the wonderful love story between him and my Gran. In the last months before I left Scotland to live in Florida with my wonderful husband, my Papa started to tell me about some of his experiences during World War II. My Papa volunteered at the very beginning of the war in 1939, as an 18 year old, and he saw action on several fronts throughout the entire length of the war until 1945. He never talked about the war, until those last few months we spent together.

He was a colourful man by any description. Born during a difficult time in British history, just a few years after the Great War. He grew up in what would now be considered poverty, leaving school at 14 years old to go out to work. He was a very intelligent man who never had the opportunity to further his education, but those were the times in which he was raised. As already mentioned he saw action for the entire length of WWII. He came back home after the war to work in the iron works, where he worked until he turned 65, when he then retired. He was a heavy drinker in his younger years, but by the time I came along he had calmed down and in later years would drink much less. My Gran was the love of his life, that he said goodbye to when he became a widower nearly 11 years ago. He was a very loving grandfather, and great-grandfather. He loved children, and I know he would have loved to meet this child I carry within me. However that was not to be. If this child is a boy, we will use my Papa's name in his honour.

I know I'm mostly rambling. The reality that my Papa is really gone is still sinking in. It has been difficult to be so far away from the rest of my family this past week, and it will be difficult to miss the funeral, but I can't fly transatlantic this far along in my pregnancy. Instead I have to take comfort in knowing that my Papa knew how much I loved him, and I would have been there at his bedside if I could possibly have been.

I love you Papa, and will miss you always.

Thomas Reid, 15th December 1921 - 11th April 2010