Last weekend we went to visit Blue Eyes’ father in Los Angeles. Much to my astonishment, it has been an absolute pleasure dealing with Grandpa the past few months. Most of his grumpiness towards Blue Eyes and The Peacemaker is gone. Grandpa now laughs and jokes and says “I love you,” and “I miss you,” to his son (and Grandson) on the phone, in emails, and in person. Kinda like you would expect a decent dad to do. He hugs his son and even gently kissed me on my cheek as we said goodbye to him at his house last Sunday. He cried and waved as we drove away. To be honest, it’s a little disconcerting. This is the man, the father, that Blue Eyes needed when he was a little boy, and a teenager, and a young man.

At dinner out with Blue Eyes and The Peacemaker, Grandpa even talked about old girlfriends, from before Grandma, and maybe thinks about what could have been. Although he desperately misses his wife of nearly 63 years, I know he has regrets. I know he wishes he had been a better father, a better nurturer. Although it goes unspoken, everyone knows Grandma was a possessive, controlling narcissist and kept Grandpa away from his kids as much as she possibly could. She needed to control everyone and everything around her and Grandpa let her. But he can’t go back and undo the wrongs. He and everyone else can only move forward. I think Blue Eyes is happy with the father he now has. He always idolized his father, put him up on a pedestal because he was an extremely successful attorney, even if he was a mostly gruff, emotionless absentee father. Now Blue Eyes has a father. A dream come true.

Grandpa will turn 90 in a few months. Here’s hoping we have a few more years left with this version of him.

Oh, and we had lots of fun, and ate some really great food while in Lalaland.

And we had a great time at Dodger Stadium. Dodgers v. Red Sox. Dodgers swept ‘em.

All the years Grandma was alive, I mostly loved Los Angeles from afar… always afraid of running into her, and absolutely not wanting to. Now I can truly enjoy LA again. It’s actually one of my favorite cities.