Grandpa Samson: Part 6--Goodbye :'(

My grandfather had experienced some illness when I was young. I remember that my mother gave blood when my grandfather underwent surgery to remove part of his stomach (I don’t know what the problem was). But in the summer of 1969, Grandpa began passing some blood in his urine. In August, his went into the hospital and it was found that he had some sort of cancer that involved his blood. He was in the hospital for about 3 weeks and was quite alert and lucid until the night of his death. My parents had gone to visit him, and found that he was slipped away. They called my grandmother and uncle, who rushed to the hospital, and Grandpa passed away on September 6, 1969, at the age of 85.

My parents came home and told my brother that Grandpa had died that night. My brother sat in our back hall, hugging our dog Sissy, crying, and telling her that Grandpa wouldn’t be coming back anymore. For months afterward, when my Uncle Donald’s pulled into our driveway, Sissy ran to the car and looked for her best friend who would never return.

Grandpa is buried with Grandma, my godmother Aunt Elsie (Uncle Bob's wife), and Uncle Donald in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Whitesboro, NY. The Samson headstone has a bas relief of the Sacred Heart on it. Their graves are just a short distance from my parents graves and the graves of Uncle Nick and Aunt Josephine.