T.O. Hale

This past weekend, Mom, Ryne and I headed to God's Country to visit my grandparents.  We have been trying to make more frequent visits since my grandfather was diagnosed with metastatic bone cancer back in June.  Papa's diagnosis is a bit of a grim one.  He basically has cancer everywhere in his bones.  My Aunt Holly saw the scan that they did of his body.  Apparently the cancer sort of lights up on the scan.  She said that Papa's scan looked like a Christmas tree!  When they asked about the life expectancy, the doctor told Papa that he had already outlived the life expectancy being 87 years old.  I guess that is somewhat comforting.

We saw my grandparents for Thanksgiving but had not been back.  Since then Papa has started experiencing pain and is having trouble getting out of chairs and such, so he has a pretty awesome Lazy Boy chair that literally lifts him up to almost a standing position.  Ryne was a fan of riding the Lazy boy up and down!  He had also lost 40 lbs since then.  I think Mom and I were worried about how he would look with all the weight off.  I haven't really known Papa as a skinny man, so I knew it would shock me more than Mom.  He actually looked pretty good and seemed to be in good spirits.  He has said that he feels the best when his family comes to see him!  And he especially loves hugs from Ryne!

Papa is an amazing man.  Truly, one of the greats!  He came from nothing...and I mean nothing and has managed to stay out of debt his whole life, I think.  That is such a rarity anymore that it is definitely something to admire!  Papa told some stories of when he was growing up that really put things into perspective.  He said that when his father finally came home for good (his father kind of came and went and they never knew where he went or when he'd be back) that they finally moved into a 1 room house.  Not one bedroom.  One Room!  He said there was no insulation so my great grandfather nailed cardboard-type material up on the wall whenever they came across some.  Can you imagine 6 people living in a small one room house?  There was no bathroom, not even an outhouse.  They had to just walk out into the woods to use the bathroom and borrowed one bucket of water a day from a neighbor's well to cook and wash with.  That story sort of made me cringe at the idea that Adam and I are selling our house, which we think is small, to get into a bigger house so we can have enough room for our family.  We take so much for granted these days.  Lets face it, Adam and I are not as well off as most of our friends, and we have it MADE in comparison to Papa's upbringing.  Be grateful for what you have!

Papa's yard/garden/vineyard is actually quite amazing to me!  He has quite a bit of property and he uses it very well.  He has been an organic gardener for YEARS...like before I was born.  By organic, I mean, absolutely NO pesticides.  Here's the break down:  He has a huge garden - bigger than the lot my house sits on.  He has chickens for bug control.  He used to have bees to help pollinate his garden.  He had a worm bed because the worms would help aerate the soil.  The has several compost piles for fertilization.  He also eats the eggs the chickens lay.  He grew just about anything you could think of - sun flowers, peanuts, all kinds of vegetables and fruits.  He had apple trees, blueberries, and muscadine and scuppernong grape vines.  He also used to make some REALLY good wine - like knock your socks off, one sip and you were gooooood, kind of wine!  My grandmother canned food so they could eat off the garden all year long.  At one time they had a pony, a cow, a goat and pigs.  Life at Papa's is so different from any other place I've been!

I think when Papa passes that all the things that made up his lifestyle will be missed just as much as he will be.  It's like the garden, the grape vines, the chicken coop, the compost piles, and the old fashioned push plow are Papa.  Now the garden is pretty bare and the chicken are cooped up (literally) and the compost piles are smaller.  It's hard to see that because that is who Papa was.

The weather was pretty amazing during our visit.  It was sunny and 75 on Sunday and my Aunt Holly, Uncle Kevin and cousin Alex came to see us and my grandparents.  It was a beautiful day and Ryne and Alex (he's 7 or 8 years old) had so much fun playing in Papa's plowed up garden.  I took some pictures of Papa's yard and such, since we have such great memories there.   These will not likely have much meaning to anyone else, but to my family that are the various aspects of the greatest father, grandfather and great grandfather that we will ever have!

Papa's initials are T.O. and the fact that he didn't use punctuation to separate the first two initials and his last name is Hale make his mail box hilarious!

Mom and Ryne with the shed in the background.  

I guess this is one way to hang an axe

Back of the shed. 

Playing with a broken shovel.  

 Ryne with Papa.

 The chicken coop

 Papa never throws anything like this away.

 Rusted chain

The grapevines

 Mushrooms

 The doorknob of the old shed

 Sunny and 75!

 Birdhouse

 The chickens and the rooster

 The barn, which was made out of wood from the old school house.