I was on time, Granddaddy

So, yes, my last grandparent passed away a few weeks ago.

Upon hearing that, the most common-sense thing to do was go to the funeral.

That was not the most economical choice for us because honestly, a trip to Chicago is expensive. We just had a baby and our savings were depleted.

My wife had kept pushing for me to take the trip and eventually I came around to it.

I had already had so many regrets with my grandfather that I had no choice but to go.

Growing up we saw my mother's side of the family a lot more than our dad's side, so I had only seen my grandfather so many times in my life.

My grandfather was a proud man, with a very prominent, slow and memorable voice. He lived his life by a code and that code was built on the Bible. If something didn't seem right he didn't bite his tongue.

One mild story was during the funeral of his youngest son, my Uncle Elbert. He, of course, was putting things together because he was also an Elder at our family's church on the South Side of Chicago.

I remember us getting ready to attend the funeral and he made sure he kept everyone in line.

In his voice, he said something like, “I can not believe that y'all are about to be late to your own brother's funeral. I said come here at nine-thirty and here y'all come at nine-forty.”

That is one of his most memorable rants and there were many. After fighting with myself about whether or not I should go to his funeral, I knew he would understand if I couldn't make it.

But I also knew that I regretted not seeing him for the past six years, despite visiting Chicago a few times with my family.

He never had the chance to meet Susan, PJ or Lincoln but we did drive a round trip of over 40 hours to lay his body to rest.

Susan had never attended a “homegoing” ceremony and neither had my sons.

It was a true celebration of his life and legacy. There was shouting, praise, worship, crying, joyful noise, people catching the spirit and other stuff that people outside of a charismatic church may not be used to.

I looked over to PJ, thinking oh Lord the shouting and praise has just begun and he is probably really scared. He was clapping, smiling and laughing.

He would later tell his mother, “That was a great birthday party! Except they didn't have cake!”

It was awesome to be able to go and also to introduce my wife to a lot more people on my side of the family.