My Papa passed away when I was only 11 years old so I unfortunately can't remember very much about him. What I do remember is that he was friendly, calm, always smiling, loved food and that my sister and I used to sleep on his belly when we were younger. The summer before he passed, we spent two weeks in Montreal with my Nanny and Papa visiting our aunts, uncles and cousins. This would end up being the last time I spent an extended period of time with my Papa so the best memories of him are from this trip.
Two memories stand out the most, my favourite has to be from the drive home from Montreal. My sister and I were sleeping in the back and my Nanny was asleep in the front, and we were heading to my dad's house near Barrie so it was a solid 5-6 hour drive. We were about halfway through the trip when the car all of a sudden stopped and my sister and I woke up confused as to where we were. My Papa informed us that we were at the Hershey Chocolate Outlet in Smith Falls, much to our excitement. My sister asked him why we had stopped here and he told her, while smiling, that she had recommended the stop. Confused my sister answered that she was sleeping, that we were all sleeping, and my Papa insisted that she had demanded we stop so we could get chocolate. A little while later we were on our way home, with tons of chocolate, laughing as my Papa insisted that he had stopped at our request, because of course he wouldn't have wanted the chocolate. I can remember getting home to my dad's and smiling as we told him that Papa had stopped to get us chocolate on the way home. To this day when I hear someone mention Smith Falls, I can't help but smile and remember my Papa.
The second memory is potentially what started my eventual love for everything sports. My Papa had a weak heart and he therefore couldn't stay outside in the summer heat for very long. My cousins had a pool in their backyard so we spent most of the day outside swimming and enjoying the sun. I remember that my Papa was never sad that he couldn't join us, he was quite content to stay inside with the air conditioning and watch the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, or whatever else happened to be on tv at the time. I can't remember how it started, but I eventually ended up inside with my Papa watching the women's Gymnastics and I was fascinated. For those of you who don't remember, this was the year of the Magnificent Seven, the first women's team from the United States to secure a gold medal at the Olympics. I can remember sitting next to my Papa on the couch unable to look away from these amazing young girls and telling him one day I wanted to be one them. We watched the team events, the individual events, the preliminaries, the finals, and the gala, I just couldn't get enough of it. I'm sure he would have preferred to watch something else, but he never complained, just sat next to me on the couch and listened to me ramble on and on about how amazing it was.
At eleven years old, this marked the first time I had ever watched a sporting event for an extended period of time and enjoyed it. I loved it so much that months, and even years, later I would try to find televised competitions for university gymnastics. Since 1996, I have also tried to watch as many Olympic competitions as I can; researching the athletes, trying to understand the events, and cheering for the Canadians, all the while remembering my Papa, who had introduced me to worldwide event. Before 1996, I never knew sports could be as fun to watch as they were to play.My love for hockey didn't start until my early twenties so sadly I was never able to share it with my Papa, but I like the idea that, if he were still around today, this could be something we could do together, even though I'm sure we'd argue over which teams to cheer for. I also feel like sports, whether it's hockey now or gymnastics when I was eleven, will forever remain a connection to my Papa and that will always make me smile.
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