Grandfather

When I was ten, I spent the best months of my life in Norway at the mountain farm where my mother was born. What 32  remains most vivid in my mind are the times I shared with my Grandfather Jorden.

The first thing I 33 noticed about Grandfather was his big hands and broad shoulders. The second thing was how he could work. All summer I watched him. He mowed grass, gathered the hay in huge bundles, and carried them on his back to the bam. He caught and salted fish, grew and stored potatoes. He stopped only long enough to eat and to sleep a few winks. 34 Few people could work so hard.

And yet he 35 managed to find time for just the two of us. One day he gave me a knife. He took his own knife and cut a thin branch from 36 a nearby tree. He showed me how to make a flute. Even today, 60 years later, whenever I hear the pure notes of a flute, I think of how he made music from nothing but a branch of a tree.

As an American, I always thought people simply bought whatever they needed. I don’t know 37 whether Grandfather knew this, but it seems he wanted to teach me something. And the flute will always 38 remind me of my Grandfather and his life lessons.