Goodbye Grandpa Pete

Yesterday morning my grandfather, Ewald "Pete" Blum, passed away. He was 92 and 1/2 years old. With my grandparents living in Wisconsin and myself growing up on the East Coast, I didn't become very close with Grandpa Pete, but he's always stood out in my mind as this epic individual. He worked his way through college, he fought in WWII, he was (I think) in charge of audits for the state of Wisconsin, he raised two sons and two daughters, he taught himself woodworking and made beautiful furniture, he played tennis into his 80's, he drank gin martinis, smoked a pipe and loved ice cream bars and peanuts. That's about as much as I know about him. But when I think about my dad and my aunts and uncle and even myself I realize that Grandpa Pete was more than just those things, he was a real person. He created this fun, quirky, interesting family that I'm so glad to be a part of. The past five years or so I tried to get to Wisconsin as much I could in order to spend time with my extended family. In doing so I learned a lot about myself. Little quirky things I do that people tease me about I realized my family does the same things. It's made me appreciate my own immediate family even more by seeing how my dad was influenced by his dad and in turn how I've been influenced by my dad.

This past March for Spring Break I drove around Wisconsin visiting both sides of my family. It was the last time I saw Grandpa Pete. Although he was weak and frail, he was still making jokes and telling stories. I went with him and Grandma Sally to a classical Piano concert and he told me how once he played piano on the radio with some buddies of his when he was young. And it was fun to see all these people come up to him and say hi. One of my greatest fears about dying is that I won't have accomplished anything meaningful and I won't be remembered. I don't think that's the case for Grandpa Pete. I'm looking forward to meeting Grandpa's friends and people he's influenced and hearing stories about his long and meaningful life. If I could grow up to be a quarter of the man he was, I think I'll have lead a pretty awesome life.

Sauk City, Wisconsin

My Grandparent's house, "The Castle," at 301 Jackson St.

Grandma Sally and Grandpa Pete, the last photo I have with him, taken March 2009.