TWENTY-TWO
NO ONE IS OLD IN HEAVEN
When Pop died in 1975, I inherited a couple of things. I was proud to
receive the little .22 rifle I used when he and I hunted prairie dogs and
rabbits together. I also inherited Pop’s bowling ball and, later, an old desk
that my grandpa had had ever since my mom could remember. With a
medium stain somewhere between maple and cherry, it was an interesting
piece, first because it was a pretty small desk for such a huge man, and
second, because the part where you pushed your chair under curved
around you instead of being a straight edge like an ordinary desk. When I
was a teenager and knee-deep in wood shop at school, I spent many
hours in my parents’ garage, refinishing Pop’s desk. Then I moved it into
my room, a sweet reminder of a salt-of-the-earth man.
From the time I put the desk into service, I kept a photo of Pop in the top
left drawer and pulled it out every now and then to reminisce. It was the last
picture ever taken of my grandfather; it showed him at age sixty-one, with
white hair and glasses. When Sonja and I married, the desk and the photo
became part of our household.
After Colton started talking about having met Pop in heaven, I noticed
that he gave specific physical details about what Jesus looked like, and he
also described his unborn sister as “a little smaller than Cassie, with dark
hair.” But when I asked him what Pop looked like, Colton would talk mainly
about his clothes and the size of his wings. When I asked him about facial
features, though, he got kind of vague. I have to admit, it was kind of
bugging me.
One day not long after our drive to Benkelman, I called Colton down to
the basement and pulled my treasured photo of Pop out of the drawer.
“This is how I remember Pop,” I said.
Colton took the frame, held it in both hands, and gazed at the photo for a
minute or so. I waited for his face to light up in recognition, but it didn’t. In
fact, a frown crinkled the space between his eyes and he shook his head.
“Dad, nobody’s old in heaven,” Colton said. “And nobody wears glasses.”