October 10th, 2009 kyleroth Posted in Family 6 Comments »

Grandpa Kromer

I have to say I never really knew Grandpa Kromer too well. The memories that I have from my childhood include fishing trips on his boat, rare stops by our house with chocolate milk and ice cream treats, and our yearly trip to his home in Norwalk, Ohio. Every Christmas we would pile into the car and make the “long” drive from Sandusky to Norwalk. As we would make our way down to the basement there would be the usual batch of homemade Christmas cookies on the table that included some buckeyes and my favorite, the cornflake wreaths with red hots as holly berries. Then, we would make our way to the back room filled with hunting trophies, collectible beer cans, antique milk bottles and 70′s furniture. We would play pool on Grandpa’s pool table being very careful not to scratch the table or color the ceiling blue with the chalk from the cue.

Those holidays meant a lot to us. After shooting pool and playing with all of the Star Wars and castles, we would sit down to sing all of the songs from Grandpa’s “song book” before we could open the gifts. The gifts, to be honest, were an afterthought. As kids, we had fun just being at Grandpa’s house. To be there meant it was a special occasion. We would all gather together and celebrate the holidays as a family.

My Grandfather and Grandmother were divorced when I was a child. He remarried and moved to Norwalk with his new wife, Marge, and her family. There were a lot of children, step-children, grandchildren, great grandchildren in the family so I was not very close with him. He was a farmer, a fisherman, an outdoorsman. He worked for Toft’s Dairy and went around to the local farms and checked on the cows and the milk for the dairy. He worked hard and was “the rock” in the family in the eyes of my mother. Even though I did not have the closest relationship with him, he provided my mother with a sense of safety and comfort especially when she was going through her battle with leukemia.

Tonight, my Mother called to inform me that Grandpa Kromer had passed away. He had been sick, battling pancreatic cancer for the past few months. We knew he did not have much time, so I am glad we were able to go visit him one last time a couple weeks ago. It was surreal walking into his home, taking the kids down to the basement to try to share some of the memories that I had experienced in my childhood. As we all gathered around Grandpa, I think we all knew that this would be the last time that we would all be together with him. The great grandchildren probably wont remember much about this last visit with Grandpa, but it is up to us to share the stories and the memories so that they do remember him.