The Grandfather and the Miracle Story

                                                         The Grandfather and the Miracle Story 

                                                                                     1959

                                                       This is a  true and a very real Miracle Story

                                                            Written 2006 and Re-written 2/2019

                                                                             Howard Yasgar

         

      In 1959 I was twenty one years old and living with my mom and dad in Westville Connecticut.

      Westville is a suburb of New Haven.

      My grandfather, Eddie, was seventy one years old at the time, of this story.

      Grandad Eddie had retired in New Haven and retired to Miami Florida in 1952.

      As I was growing up, I always remember everyone in our family saying Grandpa was crazy, because Florida only had swamps, mosquitoes and giant cockroaches.

      However I always remember my grandfather saying  Florida was the land of milk and honey, and he said all kinds of delicious fruit grew everywhere, and was free for the taking.

      To prove it, Grandpa return to New Haven with his suitcases full of all kinds of ripe fruit.

      He would lay them out on our kitchen table and cut them up for everyone to try.

      None of us had ever seen most of the fruit he brought, not only that but everything he put on the table was already over ripe and some were rotting from being in his hot suit case for so long.

      I didn’t like it, when they did it, but everyone laughed at my grandfather behind his back,  I felt real bad for him, as he just loved Florida, and he had no bad intentions.

      Even my mom said that Grandpa probably found the fruit in someone’s garbage.

      One day, while Grandpa  was staying with us, he  got real sick, and it looked very serious.

      My mom who was a registered nurse thought Grandpa might die.

      All my Grandpa would say when he was conscious was, “Please let me go home to Florida”. Once I am there I will be OK.

      However,  getting Grandpa home to Florida was no easy task.

      It was a  long 70 mile ride to the airport in New York, and then there was the night owl flight to Florida, and who would get Grandpa home from the airport once he was in Miami.

      Then there was the question, what if he died along the way.

      These subjects and others were discussed around the kitchen table, I wasn’t invited.

      Finally, after several hours, the family had made their decision, I was elected to take Grandpa home to Miami Florida.

      Oh, my goodness.

      Mom said, don’t be afraid, if  Grandpa passes away on the airplane, just tell the stewardess she will know what to do.

      I was really scared when I said I would do it.

      My Grandpa looked terrible, he was unconscious all the way to the airport in New York.

      Using  a wheelchair and a lot of assistance from airline employees we got on board a night owl flight to Miami.

      The plane had lots of open seats so I sat Grandpa next to a window. He looked very bad, he looked so bad I didn’t want to look at him. He just sat there with his eyes were closed.

      About  one and a half hours into the flight, Grandpa’s eyes opened, he looked at me and said “I smell Florida”.

       I thought he was becoming delusional and I got real frightened, is this how people act before they die.

      Grandpa started taking deep breaths, and his eyes stayed open.

      He said to me “ I know we are near Florida”. 

      By the time we landed it was close to four in the morning in Miami and my Grandpa was in perfect health.

      He walked off the airplane with no assistance, and he carried his suitcase.

      We stepped out of the Miami terminal onto 36^th street where all the car rental agencies were. 

     Grandpa rented a  blue 1959 Chevrolet and he let me drive him home.

     For me this was truly a miracle.