THURSDAY
by Andy Hodges
When I think about someone who has shown resilience in their life, the first and best example that comes to mind is my grandpa, Don Grachek.
Grandpa Don passed away in 2020, and I still think about him often. When I have, the word resilience hasn't come to mind, but I think after this sermon series it will. Usually I think about his kindness to everyone he met. He was deeply invested in his community where he lived in central Florida for the last 30 plus years of his life.
I once had the chance to go on a mission trip to eastern Europe, and while there, I was able to meet up with some people who knew my grandpa. While together, they made sure that I knew how blessed they were by his kindness. In addition to kindness, he was also a very joyful person (which I think often goes hand-in-hand). He'd sing, he'd laugh, he'd dress up in goofy costumes, and on some rare occasions, I've been told that he even had a pretty hilarious Elvis impression (although I've only heard stories and seen a picture or two).
If you were to take a look at some of the hard things he went through in his life, you probably wouldn't guess that Grandpa Don would have been a very kind or joyful person. When he was young, he lost his father to suicide. I also remember him telling stories about how their family was very poor when he was growing up. One year when he was very young, he got only a small box of crayons for Christmas. He decided to hide them from his older siblings. But, because he was so young, he mistakenly thought the oven would be a good place to put them. And, as you may guess, they melted and he lost his only Christmas present that year.
Grandpa Don and my grandma, Bettye were high school sweethearts. When he passed, we went through some of his belongings and I had the chance to read the notes that they wrote to each other in their yearbooks. In hers, he took up most of the page each year he wrote to her—just gushing about how in love they were. Just a couple of years later, they got married, and eventually had three daughters. My mom was the middle of their three. I've heard some stories about how when my mom was young, my grandma had struggled, herself, with depression…how it was crippling at times, and how it led her to feel shame because she didn't know how to cope with those types of struggles. Yet in spite of all of that, she and my grandpa were amazing parents to my mom and aunts.
My grandma passed away to cancer in the early 90's, and my grandpa was heartbroken. He remarried, but only a short number of years later, his second wife also passed from cancer. Part of his grieving process led him to volunteer in the same hospital where his first and second wives were treated, and he continued to do so for many years as a way of showing kindness and love to those who were struggling with what his loved ones had endured.
I remember hearing about how Grandpa Don had heart problems, bladder cancer, trouble with his vision, and often was in pain with some back issues. But it was hard to know all of those things, because of how he was just so focused on loving God and other people, and I believe that made his own troubles seem less significant. I know his life wasn't easy, but because he had a lifetime of choosing gratitude and thinking about himself less, he certainly left an impact on my life...and I know I'm not the only one.