OPINION: Memories to last a lifetime

The last few weeks have been hard for me, but not in the way I expected. Based on the results of the election, I figured this month would be difficult and involve lots of stress and soul-searching. A week after the election, on my 24th birthday, I got a call that my grandfather had died.

I’ve written about my grandfather Harvey, who I called Opa, before. My father’s father, Opa grew up in Minnesota, where he met and married my grandmother Oma. The two eventually moved to Wisconsin, where my dad and aunt were born. In 2003, Opa lost Oma to non-Hodgkins lymphoma, so he began to travel more. After a few years of being a snowbird, Opa officially moved to Arizona, where he lived until this summer.

In June, we moved Opa to an independent living apartment in Wisconsin to be closer to us and have more eyes on him. I got to see him a lot more in the last few months than I had in the years prior to that, which I am very thankful for.

We buried Opa this last weekend next to Oma in southern Minnesota. It was nice to hear everyone’s stories and love for my grandpa during that time. I’d like to share a couple of my favorites now.

When I was maybe 3 years old, I was coloring farm animals with my grandpa and mother. I chose the cute pig, coloring it in a pretty pink. My grandfather was horrified. “You can’t do that,” he said. “Pigs aren’t pink!” Despite growing up in rural Minnesota, surrounded by pig farmers, he had never seen a pink pig.

While I’m well aware that many pigs are black and white or brown, it’s still astonishing to me to think of this. My mother informed him of his incorrect information, and it was something we brought up about him more than we probably should have. In fact, my birthday card for him this year included a pink pig with overalls on, declaring him “overall the greatest.”

Opa was a bit of a stubborn man, something supported by a few news articles I found quoting him back in the day. I was looking up the names of different family members on newspapers.com and had found some great photos of my parents in high school, birth and engagement announcements, etc.

Then I found a few news stories that quoted my grandfather. The poor news reporter thought my Opa would be a great person to interview. Here’s what Opa said. “‘A judge said ‘No’ to you people,’ resident Harvey Henze said. ‘What part of ‘No’ don’t you understand? We’ve told you time and again what we want. No one listens.’”

After 130 truck drivers at a local company lost their jobs, Opa’s quote was this: “It might not quite be a disaster but it’s a helluva speed bump in the road of life.”

Yeah, that sounds about right. Neither my dad nor grandpa have ever been fans of talking to the press, so I’m sure having me work for a newspaper was a bit confusing emotionally.

We learned a little about Opa’s second date with Oma, on which he bought her a garter and a 45 record. The song on the record was “Teach Me Tiger” by April Stevens. If you haven’t heard the song before, let me tell you, it’s a weird one to picture your grandparents listening to together.

There are lots of wonderful memories with Opa, many of which involve us playing cards together. We played a lot of cards last weekend, something he taught all of us to love. Last weekend was hard, but seeing all the family and feeling their support was a wonderful thing. While I wish we had more time with Opa, I feel so grateful for the time we did receive.