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Her hand was shaking as she handed him the picture. He studied it and she tried to think of what to say as he looked at it, but she couldn’t think of anything.
“Well, I’ll be…where did you find this?”
“My mom had it. It’s the only picture she had of my dad as a child.”
“Your dad?” Grandpa J lifted his head and looked at her.
“Yes. Donald Gregory.” Her hand was still shaking as she pointed to the picture. “That’s my dad.”
Grandpa J looked down at the picture and then back up at her. She couldn’t say what she’d expected his reaction to be, but the somber and stoic expression that he was wearing wasn’t it. Maybe she shouldn’t have done this. Maybe there was a reason that her dad hadn’t been in touch with his father. Maybe the amazing husband she’d just interviewed had known how to love his wife but had sucked in the father department.
She was just about to grab the picture back and leave when he spoke, his voice hoarse and strained, “Oh, honey. I’m sorry to have to tell you this but your daddy passed away twenty-three years ago.”
“Oh, I know.” She almost laughed from relief that his reaction had been because he thought he was the one who was going to have to break the news that her dad was dead. She shook her head. “I know that. My mom was actually with him that night. I’m not here because I’m trying to find him, I’m here because I’m trying to find you.”
“Me?” His face was clouded with confusion.
Again, his response was not what she’d expected, but she figured she should push through. “Yes. I found this picture and on the back,” she leaned forward and flipped it over, “The ink is faded but it says Whisper Lake, The Colonel, son Donny age four.”
Grandpa J squinted at it and then his face relaxed as realization dawned on him.
There, that was more like what she had expected.
“Oh darlin’,” he shook his head slowly back and forth.
Okay, maybe not.
“Donny’s my godson, the other letters must have gotten erased.”
Ginny’s heart sank and she felt so stupid. She was as bad as the people that believed what they read on the Internet. She’d built up an entire life, an entire fantasy off of some words and a picture.
“Donny was Don’s boy. See now, I served with Don and after we got out we stayed close. He’d asked me to be Donny’s godfather and I asked him to be my son Mike’s godfather.”
“Oh.” She managed to say over the large knot that had formed in her throat as more tears fell down her face. She braced herself, waiting to hear that her true grandfather had passed away. That he’d been a great man that she would never know. That besides her mom, she really didn’t have anyone.
“But honey, he’s going to be over the moon to meet you.”
“Wait. He’s alive?” She didn’t know why she’d just assumed he was gone. Maybe it just felt like that because of the way her day was going.
“Oh yeah, that old-timer is still goin’ strong.”
“Where is he?” Ginny knew in that moment, she would literally fly to the end of the earth to meet him.
“He’s up at Whisper Lake, just a few hours’ drive from here. He runs a rescue up there.”
“A rescue?” she repeated as she wiped her cheeks with the handkerchief and composed herself.
“Yes, ma’am. You’re granddad runs a dog rescue.”
“A dog rescue?” And just like that she was bawling again.
“Yep. And he trains those pups up to be therapy dogs for soldiers that come home with PTSD. I don’t really know how he does it, but I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it when you meet him.”
Her grandfather ran a dog rescue that trained dogs to be therapy dogs. She didn’t think that there was anything Grandpa J could tell her about him to make her love him more.
“What’s his name? Can I have his number?”
“His name is Donald Gregory Williams, your daddy was a Jr. And you can absolutely have his number, but it won’t do you any good until tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“That’s when he gets back from his wilderness trip. See now, he starts every year going into the woods without any electronics or devices. He says it makes him appreciate having those things the rest of the year and he starts it off with a grateful heart. Now, I used to think he was a few cards short of a full deck for that, but I did go on it one year, the year I lost my Marie, and let me tell you, there is something to be said about getting back to the basics and getting in touch with nature. It was spiritual and healing. Of course, it was also cold and uncomfortable and I haven’t been back since, but he has a whole group that goes out there with him every year. Some only go once and some have been going for well, for the twenty-three years he has.”
Goosebumps broke out on her arm. “Twenty-three years?”
“That’s right.” Grandpa J teared up a little, but he wiped the moisture away with his finger and thumb. “The first time he went out there was the winter after he lost his boy, your daddy. It’s his story to tell, but he felt awful bad about how things were between the two of them. Don is a good man, an honorable man, a hard-working, kind and generous man. But he had expectations for Donny. Rules that he demanded be obeyed in his house. Your daddy was a smart, funny, talented young man. But those two did not see eye to eye. Not about cleaning his room. Or making curfew. Or having a job. When your daddy dropped out of high school and went on the road with his band it broke your grandad’s heart. But he never stopped loving him. He would have moved heaven and earth for that boy. Losing him…I wasn’t sure he was going to come back from that. But then he went out in those woods and well, he came back a different man. He was still grieving, still heartbroken, but he had a different take on life. One of the biggest thing that those two would fight about when Donny was growing up was that he wasn’t allowed to have a dog because your granddad didn’t think he was responsible enough. So, that next summer a year to the day that your daddy died, he started the rescue and never looked back.”
She was wrong, there was something he could say that made her love him more.
