Processing

I just found out my maternal grandfather has died.

We weren’t particularly close.  I grew up far away from my extended family.  He and my father had some issues between them that were never really resolved.  We lived very different lives.  Still, he was my grandfather.  He was never as openly affectionate as my paternal grandfather was, but still showed me affection in his way.  I saw more of that when I occasionally encountered him as an adult. 

I haven’t seen him in many years.  Since that last meeting he developed Alzheimer’s.  He finally succumbed to pneumonia after a bout of flu last week.  He was 86.