goodbye colonel

My grandpa passed away the day before my birthday.  Needless to say, my birthday wasn't quite as enjoyable as in years passed but, I'm happy for my grandpa.  He lived a wonderfully long life filled with amazing accomplishments and loving family and friends.  I'm glad he is free of his aging body.  It is just hard to not have him here with us. My grandma came over last night for family night and brought me a little birthday card.  I had a little breakdown as I read the inside and realized that there was nothing written from my grandpa.  Every year since I can remember my grandma and grandpa would each write me a special little note and this year his tiny, shaky handwriting was missing. I spent a lot of time over the last month thinking back to my childhood and how much fun I had with him.  Everything I thought of was silly and most likely insignificant to someone else, but they were special to me.  How he always sang Kaiser Bill to us.  How he would exercise in his garage really early in the morning.  We always liked to play on his rowing machine when he was done.  How his office was full of books and cassette tapes.  How he would take us to the Air Force Base to eat.  He taught us about the uniforms and how to salute.  I always thought he was so cool because you had to have a pass to get on the base and he actually had one.  How he would take us to see the airplanes.  How he loved sports, especially Longhorn football and Lady Longhorn basketball (so random).  How he would feed the birds and the squirrels every morning in his huge backyard.  How he would ride the train with us at Zilker Park.  How he never liked watching Disney movies because they weren't historically accurate. lol. I always loved his stories.  My grandpa was born in 1916.  He told me stories about riding a horse to school, living on an enormous farm where they had animals, sold milk and eggs, grew tons of fruits and vegetables and nuts and cotton and corn.  I wish I remembered everything they grew on the farm.  It was incredible how much stuff they grew. He had stories about horse drawn carts that carried blocks of ice.  I thought that was so cool because it reminded me of Pollyanna, which I watched every single time I visited my grandparents house in Austin.  He had stories about hopping on a box car and riding a train out west, even spending the night on the street in Mexico with a friend; quite the adventure! He had stories about World War II.  How he wanted to fly planes but his eyesight wasn't good enough.  During WWII he served in the Army Air Corps (the air force didn't exist yet) in logistics.  I'm pretty sure he organized plane schedules. He wanted to go overseas so bad that one time he kind of made up a reason to hop on a plane himself and he ended up in trouble by his commanding officer.  I wish he were still here to help me remember all the details.  I miss him.  But, I know he is in a better place and I know I will see him again.  I'm so glad Elaina was able to spend time with her "Bumpa."

visiting bumpa a few days before he passed away

keeping gigi company

ate a cheeseburger for lunch the day he passed away
if you knew him you would know this was the best possible tribute :)
sorry grandpa, I couldn't add the mayo

John Alden Bierwirth

July 20, 1916 - October 9, 2012

love you colonel.