HERE'S ONE FOR GRAND-MAMAN (PAPA)

My father passed away 6 months ago, today. He was 81. 8 years ago, when Emma was born, he was sad. You see, he was from another generation, an era when people like Emma were either sent away, or kept hidden at home. His sadness was very short lived. He very quickly fell in love with his grand daughter.

He was always very supportive and always marvelled at Emma's bubbly personality. He was my friend, my mentor. I miss our conversations. I miss that man who understood so much... I miss his wisdom.

Emma had a very rough 1st year. 6 weeks of intensive care, 6 months of feeding tubes, an open heart surgery, and so on... When Emma was witty, funny, full of beans, he would tell me: "You know, when Emma was a baby, I really did not think she would make it. Just look at her now!"

Here is Emma's tribute to her grandpa...

My grand-papa, me I was calling him grand-maman. Everytime I went to his house, I would tuck him in in his hospital bed (just like I do with my babies). And, sometimes, I would ask him to get up so that I could tuck myself in in his "cool" bed. And, sometimes, I would just push him over and slide in right beside him.

I liked to play yo-yo with the knob of his oxygen machine, which should be set at 2.5. One time, grandma thought that the kitchen sink tap was opened. Oops, I had turned the knob to 5 and there were noisy bubbles coming out of grand-maman (papa)'s nose!!! Another time, grand-maman (papa) was feeling tired. Mom checked the oxygen knob and, oops, I guess I must have turned it to 1.

Another time, not long before he went to the hospital, I called 911. The policeman was quite nice and everyone soon discovered that it was I who had talked to the lady on the phone. He wrote my name down; I guess I must be a felon...

Grand-maman (papa) really enjoyed his soup crackers. To this day, his house is the only place where I eat that kind of crackers.

As you can see, me and my grand-maman (papa), we loved each other a lot.

My father was in the hospital 6 weeks before he died. During that time, when we visited my mother, Emma would run to his hospital bed and ask: Mommy, where's grand-maman (papa)?

As soon as he passed away, she never went looking for him or asked where he was...

We love you daddy, we miss you. And we hope that up above you are still watching over us and marvelling at Emma's power of love.