My Great Great Grandfather

The oldest person most people know or have known is somewhere between 90 and 100.  The oldest person to ever live was 127.  My great great grandfather was 105 before he died in 2010 and lived every year with pride.  My personal experience is about the time I knew him.

My great great grandfather Joe the 1st, or known to the whole family as Puppa Joe, lived to be 105.  Puppa Joe was on my dad’s side of the family so he was my dad's great grandfather.  He immigrated here when he was 10 years old all by himself.  I’m not sure about all the details, like how he learned English or who he lived with when he got here, because I never got the chance to ask with all of his cool stories he was always telling.

Every time you saw Puppa Joe he had a pipe in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.  Puppa Joe loved pipes. In fact he gave his whole collection to my dad.  Puppa Joe lived with his daughter and her husband in Arizona not too far away from his grandson or my grandfather.  Living for that long teaches you a lot, so my great great grandfather was a very wise man.

The year Puppa Joe turned 100 there was a really big party thrown.  I was too little to remember most of the party, I just remembered a whole lot of people and some speeches.  At the party, he sat in the front of the room and everyone got the chance to tell some short stories or funny little moments about Puppa Joe from the last 100 years.

Puppa Joe lived a very long life and experienced a lot of different things.  This experience changed me by showing me that whatever bad or good things that happen to you are for a reason and because in reality life isn’t short.  Dieing at 100 doesn’t sound like too bad of an idea to me.