Jean

Posted under Ex's, Family by Mike

 

The call came when I was out with friends playing our regular Monday night soccer game.  An excuse for a bunch of old guys to try and recapture our youth.  As I walked through the front door my wife said my youngest called.  She said she sounded upset.  My mind thought, here we go again with the teenage drama of school and friends.

 

Still sweating from the game I picked up the phone and called her.  My ex answered and immediately handed the phone to my youngest.  “Granny Jean died today” were her first words to me.  I sat down and absorbed the news.  It wasn’t unexpected, but just the same I was taken aback.  She was a day shy of her ninety fifth birthday.

 

Jean was my ex wife’s grandmother.  I first met her when my ex and I started dating back in 1979.  I had been this boy of nineteen who had just started college, had met a girl and had fallen hard for her.  Since her parents lived in Europe, her closest relatives were her grandparents living in Newport Beach. 

 

I came from a modest blue collar family.  My mom and dad both worked.  I was the first in my family to go to college.  She wanted to introduce me to her grandparents.    They lived in Newport.  They lived in a neighborhood of movie stars and pro football players.  I was intimidated.  A fish out of water. 

 

Jean and Popeye (Bob) were gracious and kind.  They invited me into their home.  It became a home that my ex and I after we were married spent many Sunday evening family dinners at.  Big, loud, family dinners with conversations ranging from politics, religion, family, history, travel, every evening became an education.  This boy from blue collar beginnings began his schooling on things that college would never teach him.

 

Jean and Popeye were young sweethearts who fell for each other.  They raised a son and a daughter who were devoted to their parents.  They both worked hard, he as a Port Pilot for the Port of Los Angeles and she as a homemaker and mother.  Jean was unselfish in volunteering for causes to help those who were less fortunate.  She was a major organizer with The Assistance League of Newport Beach. 

 

My ex got on the phone after my youngest gave me the news.  I gave her my condolences.  We talked about Jean and the life she lead.  We talked about how she was so much in love with her husband, loved her children and grandchildren.  When my ex and I became parents to our daughters, Jean was the adoring Great Grandmother who spoiled them constantly.  She truly loved her family and took great pride in making sure that family came first. 

 

She had lived a long and very full life.  Jean and I didn’t always see eye to eye on many things.  But she taught me the lessons of grace, love and unselfishness.

 

She will be missed, but not forgotten.  Goodbye Jean.