Back when my mother was at school, in ATM, my Grandfather, my bother, and me all went with her to school one weekend. I was at a very precarious age at the time. It was a late Friday night when we arrived there; I was so hungry I didn’t know what to do. Two miles from our hotel there was a Waffle House, Gene’s favorite place to eat (besides Villa South). I remember sitting by him in a booth. He kept messing with me, doing things like tapping my drinking glass at the bottom so it would go all over my face; and shaking my hand so the food on my fork would fall off. I got so aggravated with him sometimes. After everybody had finished eating my mom had noticed that I had fallen asleep in my precious Granddaddy’s lap. He carried me to the car, and all the way up the hotel stairs, then lay me on the bed. I knew he cared for me when he did that, because he always had had bad knees. Early (to me) Saturday morning my mother tried to wake everybody up at 9:30, but I was always a stubborn little red head. Grandaddy then grabbed a Kleenex and started tickling my feet and nose, so I would wake up. That makes me madder than anything in the whole world. I started kicking and screaming at him so make him stop, but after about ten minutes of that I knew it wasn’t doing any good. I got up and took my shower, and got dressed. We checked out of the hotel and then went to go eat. Where you ask? What do you think? Yes of course Waffle House. Back at it again teasing with me making water go all over my face, and food still falling on my plate over and over again. When my mom tried to go the cash register, Gene Brantley had already taken care of it. He would not let anybody in his or her right minds pay for his or her own food. Well we left there to go to the college so my mom could talk to her professor. When she was in his office, she made everybody stay in that hot stinky blue dodge colt of hers. It got to be too hot, so my Grandaddy took my brother and me outside so we could run around and cool off till my mother came out. I was walking around the p.o.s. My mother had and my Grandaddy said "Taylor come here for a minute," and aggravated little me walked over there and he showed me a green ugly bug. I raised my foot up so I could smash it, but he quickly stopped me. He said he wanted to show my mom. When he turned around I strictly disobeyed him and pounded the poor little junebug to pieces. He turned back around faster than I could blink, grabbed my arm, and spanked my booty till I didn’t want to even think about sitting down. I started crying and I asked him why he spanked me, and he told me that he wanted to show the bug to my mother and I had disobeyed him. After he had spanked me I felt really bad for what I did, then my mother walked out of the building and I started crying even harder. My mom had asked what was going on and Grandaddy explained to her what I had done. It wasn’t like I was in trouble or anything, but it was a terrible thing to have the best man on earth disappointed in you. We eventually got over it had a good trip home.

Having my Grandfather for 14 years of my life as my hero and best friend, and a roll model, was the best experience anybody could ever experience in 100 lifetimes. I was and still am a very lucky girl to have someone so special and so caring in my life. Everyday I think about him, wishing I could tell him the things I’ve accomplished, or talk to him about my bad day. To think that the best man on earth is gone tears me so many days, but I keep telling myself he’s not gone Gene Brantley is still right in the center of my heart.