Requiem for my grandfather

For as long as I can remember, everybody who knew him told us that he was a great man.

Only with his passing, did I realize how truly great he was.

In the fullness of his life,in the number of lives he touched and changed;

In the multitude who came to mourn and those who mourned, not being there;

In the many stories that were recalled every one of them an expression of either admiration, gratitude or fondness;

To the end, a man of and for the masses, a true son of the soil.

In the frugality of his life, the simplicity of his ways, devoid of any burden of guilt;

In the bareness of his possessions, in his magnanimity, in the magnitude of his generosity;

In the values that he lived by, his innocence, his pleasures - as simple and untainted as the soil he helped plow as a child;

In the many deeds that he accomplished, his accomplishments coming in spite of his situation,

In spite of who he was, where he came from and how little he possessed;

In his children, accomplished in their own right, brought to fore by nothing more than the sweat of his honest labor;

A loving father, a doting grandfather;

In the uncommon sincerity of his empathy and warmth, towards humans and animals alike;

In the genuine spontaneity of his undiscriminating hospitality;

In the hearts he won, a man who was all heart;

Philanthropist, Freedom fighter, a Rustic at heart and a Gentleman par compare – rarely, if ever, shall come men like this.