It was after this one night of spending time with 
my Grandfather that I went home and wrote 
these words ... 

Walking into a house that once was filled
with his six children wife and himself.
Now the children have grown
leaving behind a mist of memories.
And his wife lies beneath the land at peace
for her years of life has come to cease.






Surrounding their two-room home
is a hundred and thirty six acres,
of tree filled land 
clear only by horse and man.
God! ... it must be hard
for this one man to sit so still
when his body 
... life 
revolved around such a hard day's work.







Such sacrifices our parents ...
grandparents, great grandparents 
have given for such precious land.
The pain they tolerated day by day,
and the spirit that lingered 
for a Saturday Night dance
of banjo and fiddle.
A heavenly retreat from their
aches, pain and tired souls,
from six days a week
dawn to dust, day in and day out.






Those long ago days were often 
rewarded to the comfort 
of their feathered down beds.
Boiling water ... clean sheets; 
scissors close by,
got them through the mid-night births
of seven precious off-springs.






Yes, these days were known
as the good old days.
For way back then a simple man 
could depend upon his family.
Now he wonders, was it six or three?
for his days are filled with such emptiness.
He hardly sees anyone
"too busy" is their plead.
Shame we should feel for after all
he's just a man of right and wrong.







Today his TV is his main source 
of family entertainment
The odd visitor who spares 
a little of their time,
to share his precious tales
of horse and buggy days.
And if for just one moment 
he asks what life held today,
don't be so relentless
as to say "nothing" 
for it's the little things
he needs to know and hear.






You may never know just how much it means
to a man who sits in his rocker and watches TV.
Someday, you'll fill that empty seat
and just wonder how you stayed away
and never made time
for such a 
worthy "Beautiful Man"!



In Loving Memory of my Grandfather, Roy Hopkins