Grandpa

Just Grandpa & I

by Jennifer Reisenbichler

1990 (7th Grade)

It was a warm June afternoon. I stood around watching my grandpa put the horses in the horse trailer. I couldn't wait to get on one of those horses and be so high in the sky. I felt like a princess on my throne and everyone was so less important. Riding on top of the world with my grandpa's arm around my waist and a pillow under my bottom. Time to go!
I sat in the truck with my grandpa to my left waiting to arrive at the place where we would start our day of adventure and riding. I couldn't wait. My little heart was pounding and my pigtails waved back and forth from the breeze coming through the windows. We were there!
I jumped out of the truck and ran to the back of the truck to watch my grandpa saddle the horses and get them ready to ride. Everything around us was blowing in the wind. The wheat in the fields reminded me of golden blonde hair on a small girl's head swaying in the wind. I heard grandpa yell my name. I ran up to him and his big hands placed me on the horse.
On the horse, up so high, everything seemed so tiny and unimportant. Up came grandpa and we were on our way. Slightly bopping up and down, trotting down the road, looking left and right making sure to get every bit of the countryside in view. I heard the wind blowing around me, the breeze tickling my nose as we strolled through the country roads; just me and my grandpa.
Grandpa shared the same love for the countryside and horses as I did. We never really talked while riding along on those sunny Saturday afternoons. I always knew he was thinking the same things I was.
But then it was time to go home. I watched disappointedly as grandpa put the horse back in the trailer and we started home. Mom and dad came to pick me up and I'd say bye. I'd go home and excitedly await the next Saturday when I would once again be able to ride through the country with grandpa and our horse.
Now that I'm older, my weekends have become more and more busy which means I have no time to ride with my grandpa anymore. Now that our horse is no longer ridable, grandpa has to ride a different horse and he now rides alone. Although I still see him often, I wish we could have one more ride; just me and my grandpa.

Grandpa was diagnosed with cancer not long after I wrote this in my 7th grade language arts class. He fought for his life until just before I finished college. Joel & I were married in the front yard of his house, with his horses watching from the fence in the background & grandpa from Heaven.