Papa Bear Was Just Right

This post is the 3rd of 15. We are writing our way through our youth over at Mommy's Piggy TALES. Check it out! :)

I didn't have a grandpa around when I was little. That's not to say that I didn't have one at all, just that he wasn't really there. He lived a good ways away from us, and communication wasn't his strong suit. I never thought about it much, because I had my grandmother around all the time. Grandmother and grandpa hadn't been together for far longer than I'd been around.

When I was 6, my grandmother brought over a friend of hers. I don't remember a lot about when he was first around, just bits and pieces. I remember that he was a vegetarian at the time, for heath reasons I believe. I remember that he sat down next to me, and I was disturbed that he had some ant bites. I had recently seen an episode of MacGyver where someone was killed by ants, and I was convinced that all ants were capable of such horrors. He explained to me that those sort of ants are only in certain parts of the world, and we should be safe.

I didn't know how they met, but I found out when I was older. They had been at a dinner together, and were seated next to each other. They introduced themselves and started talking. They connected so quickly, and talked so easily, people thought they were married.

We didn't hear much from him for a while, because he went to be a missionary in Mexico. He was there alone, and then later Grandmother went to serve there as well. They had time to see not just what kind of people they were, but what kind of Christian the other one was.

They must have liked what they learned, because they got married, and he became our Papa Bear. I was too young to understand much of what was happening, I just knew that this special man was becoming part of our family. It was a quiet little ceremony in their pastors office. Just our family was there, and that was all we needed.