Several days back I sent my grandpa a voice message. He was in hospice care and couldn’t speak, but I wanted him to hear my voice and say my final words to him. The last time I had seen or chatted with him my life was very different. I was happily married and working at my former church full-time.

Since then though I had left this job and my then wife asked for a divorce. I definitely wished I had kept in touch with him. In the 3-minute voice message I gave him a brief life update to let him know while I went through a really hard time I am much happier now. I then told him the #1 thing that I learned from him—life is too short not to be goofy.

Every time we’d hang out he would be sarcastic and saying funny things and I would follow. We’d make each other laugh. I’d always fall for him tricking me like Cool Whip on my face when eating his famous giant pecan tassies. It was a classic.

While him and I were never really close I was definitely part of him in spirit. We both make our family laugh. I miss my goofy grandpa.