It’s been just three years since you’ve passed
Yet I still feel like it was just yesterday we were on the beach
The spirit of your personality will always last
Maybe I believed you were invincible and would always be in my reach
 
I wonder if you realized what you meant to me
Your phone calls, Christmas visits and summers together
Many times since I’ve wished I was still upon your knee
You always kept us busy during rainy day weather
 
A part of me always felt like you were my age
I observed your mannerisms closely and tried to do the same
Like the way you licked your finger before turning the page
Or how the room lit up when you came
 
Between your six grandchildren, you always fit us in
For our wonderful “Gram time,” the best time of all,
We cooked your special “Gram crackers,” couldn’t wait to dig in
Building sandcastles on the beach waiting for the tide to make them fall
 
Bubbles, Slinkies, Sculpy, and Tiddlywinks, to name a few
“The Muppets,” The Nutcracker, and Jack and the Beanstalk,
These are all things that remind me of you
Merlin trips haven’t been the same without your talk
 
Your imagination really made me believe
That there was a Mermaid named Alice on the beach with me
Alice is still there, she did not leave
Having your imagination there was key
 
Remember the summers I stayed at your house?
Rising early for back exercises with you
Then I’d help you with laundry, and we’d clean your blouse
Wherever a stain was, it became as good as new
 
I’ve loved hearing about the Christmas when I was two
We flew to D.C. and surprised you at your door
Dressed in the hat and coat you gave me, you didn’t believe it was true
I wish I could stand on that doorstep once more
 
I can’t really place your specific scent
Nothing since has smelled a bit like you
I remember it wafting in the summer house we still rent
Your fresh granola, applesauce, or a mix of the two
 
It may never hit me that I won’t see you one more time
Your pictures everywhere, just like recordings of you reading on tape
I still have the memories of you in your prime
So much of my personality you did shape
 
Your laugh overpowers the home videos we own
It makes me feel as though you’re still around
Your charisma was contagious, even over the phone
Nothing will ever compare to that sound
 
I’ll never forget the night that you left
Sitting in the bleachers of that rink, so far away
I felt as if someone had taken you, a theft
Months later we sprinkled your ashes in the bay
 
Even now, remembering, extracts fresh tears
I remind myself that you’re watching over us
I miss Playmobile and Gram sauce, from our past years
And telling me Greek Myths while walking home from the bus
 
I hope you are reading this, way up there
I wish, just once more on your skirt I could tug
The fact that you’re gone just doesn’t seem fair
All I want is one more Gram hug