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My grandfather passed away Saturday, January 28th.  The news was sudden, but his death wasn’t.  He was 85, and for the past few years, he had collected illnesses and maladies that led him to this point.  His condition had deteriorated steadily for at least three years.  It’s been a long time since I remember him not dying.  This process was slow, and the emotional and physical strain this put him and the other loved ones in my family for such a period of time was staggering.  The last time I saw him alive was Christmas Day, where he met my boyfriend.  My grandfather couldn’t walk by himself and needed lifting out of his chair in order to get to the dinner table.  Before now, my aunts and even grandmother had been regularly helping him do this.  My boyfriend is months away from being a registered nurse.  This, as well as two years of medical training, allowed Michael to lift my grandfather on his own, fluidly, and adding no stress to either person.  Whenever my grandfather was lifted, he felt as if he were falling.  Michael got him to his chair, and he ate his last Christmas dinner with his family as comfortably as he could.

William Sass was loved by everyone, and he was in pain and sleeplessness for a long time.  However, Saturday, when peace came for him, there was no pain.  He was surrounded by his entire family.

As luck would have it, my whole family was in town that Saturday for my brother’s future wife’s bridal shower.  At the end of the shower, the hospice nurse gave the call that he was hours away from dying.  His children and wife went to his bedside, and he died.  My dad was on his way when he got the news.

I was in New York, with Michael, when we heard.  We had debated that whole day whether or not to make the 15 hour drive to Chicago to see him.  Our packed schedules eventually made the decision for us not to go, and we wouldn’t have been out of Pennsylvania by the time he passed.

The wake is today, Tuesday, and the funeral is tomorrow.

Michael told me, “Everyone has to go.  Dying peacefully in your sleep, at the age of 85 and surrounded by your family, is a privilege and an honor.  We should all be that lucky.”

As far as his death goes, that’s the story.  But that’s just the last part of a long life.  Here are some of the things I will remember about him:

*When my brother and I were little, my grandparents took us to Disney World as a Christmas present.  EPCOT Center at the time was much different than it is now.  We went on the “Living Seas” educational tram ride, which is now “The Seas with Finding Nemo” (no judgment).  Anyway, as anyone who was on that trip can tell you, the most memorable moment was upon departing the Living Seas tram onto the dreaded moving walkway.

Serena Williams couldn’t find sure footing on a Disney World moving walkway disembarking effort.  My brother and grandmother and I made it when we heard the ka-thunk of my grandpa going ass over tea kettle into the orange safety cones that were set up to break people’s falls in just such an event.

We all had a good laugh about it when we helped him too his feet, and the Disney lawyers descended on us with paperwork to sign.

*The oddest memory I’ll keep of my grandfather was that he looked exactly like Mike Myers in this SNL sketch from the 90′s called “Middle Aged Man.”  My family was obsessed with how uncanny the appearance was.  I’ve posted the video below, and I’m not sure what detail was more spot on: the way he runs, the glasses, the hair, the toothy smile.  I think the most identical trait has to be that pink golf shirt paunched into those slacks.  Damn, I’ll always see William Sass, Sr. in those slacks.