During our trip to Cape Cod, Caleb and I came across a Korean War memorial and from the depths of my memory, I suddenly remembered that I have a grandfather living somewhere. Rather than unleash a rather unpleasant stream of details, I’ll give you the high-level info. (Click on the photo for a slide show.)

My grandfather (my only living grandparent) has had Alzheimer’s Disease for a very long time. As a result, perhaps, as I was growing up, not only did my family not see him much (we were in California and despite a stint living with my family, he resided mainly on the East Coast) but we didn’t talk about him that much either. In short, little of my life for the past 15-20 years has involved the presence of my grandfather.

(As an aside, this definitely disturbs me. It is astonishing how someone as important as a grandparent can be forgotten over the years.)

After a few days of legwork contacting relatives as well as my parents, I finally found out where my grandfather is located. It turns out he is in a specialized home near White Plains, NY, about an hour from where we had been just weekends before. It took a few minutes to decide whether or not to book a room nearby for later that evening, or starting the next day. I opted for the former and after rounding up Caleb, Megan, and our dog Nadine, we were off to see my grandfather.

At the expense of being too vague, I’ll eliminate the bulk of the details of the trip. Quite frankly, though it might appear that I am comfortable laying out a full set of details about what my family and I experience, there are some things, quite a few perhaps, that are simply too personal to write about. A visit with a dying man I haven’t seen, spoken to, or heard much about since I was an adolescent, certainly falls into that camp.

I will say, however, that as hard as it was, I am very glad we made the trip. Caleb enjoyed meeting his great grandfather, Megan enjoyed meeting him as well, and I think he very much enjoyed having a fresh face stop by for a change.

And yes, we will be back soon.