My Grandpa

Yesterday my Grandpa Miller passed away at 2:15pm. He was 90 years old. I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to write about his life so that anyone who reads this might get a glimpse of his very interesting life.
My grandpa was born on Christmas day 1915 in a sod house near Marquette, which is north of Grand Island. He had one sister, Grace. By a very young age he was doing a man's work out in the fields of the family farm. My grandpa loved working with horses (maybe that was passed down to me!) and loved the land. My great great Grandfather was friends with Buffalo Bill Cody and my grandpa actually met him once. As an adult my grandpa moved to Omaha and was working in a hospital when he met my Grandma. They were married and had three boys, my dad being the youngest, and according to him the most handsome. They were never well off, but my Grandma supplied a lot of love and my grandpa a work ethic and stable living. My dad told me that my grandpa would smoke 5 cigars a day, in addition to 2 packs of cigarettes, plus he chewed! (And he lived to be 90?!?!)
What I remember growing up was that my grandpa was outgoing as anyone I have ever known. Daily he would walk to the nearby auto mechanic and laundrymat to discuss what was going on in the neighborhood and reminisce about life on the farm. He was also a lover of garage sales and loved to find some trinket that to him was a treasure. He also was a pack rat, which I also think I inherited. After my grandma was moved to Wahoo because of Alzheimers, my Grandpa got an apartment nearby. As you can imagine he knew the whole place, and practically the whole town within a few days. When he moved to the care center, it was the same story. He gave the nurses out there a hard time, but I have no doubt he was one of their favorite patients. After my Grandma died two years ago my Grandpa was never the same. Years of hard work had made his body deteriorate until he was confined to a wheelchair, but he never lost the ability to joke and smile or the ability to wiggle his ears!
Now that he's gone I know he will be greatly missed but at least I know he's up in heaven with my Grandma and the rest of his family, along with a few beloved dogs, cats, horses, and cattle. And now that he's not confined to his wheelchair he's probably discussing world events with Ronald Reagan and old Nebraska farmers right after checking out any heavenly garage sales.