Memory Walk

Yesterday I walked a lap for Mike Brophy. He past away October 2009 due to lung cancer that spread to his throat. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in September 2008 and was only suppose to live til the end of November beginning of December of 2008 but he beat the odds and lived a little over a year. Mike was basically my Grandpa because my Grandpa Korsmo was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1990 and he was only suppose to make it 3 months after his diagnoses but he lived another 13 years. He lived at home having my Grandma take care of him until 1994, then he moved into the Evans Memorial Home in Cresco where he lived until 2003 when he past away on Easter Sunday of that year. I really don't remember my Grandpa Korsmo because he wasn't able to do anything when I was old enough because of how bad his illness was but I am thankful that I did get to meet him and that my Grandma and my Mom tell me stories of how he was before he got sick. Mike Brophy and my Grandma were always good friends and stayed in touch with each other, in 2006 they started dating. That is when I really met Mike and began to know him and there more time I spent at my Grandma's I began to think of Mike as a Grandpa. We would always have fun doing whatever we were doing. I remember the summer of 2010 and me and my two younger sisters were rock picking at my Grandma's and Mike's house over in Lourdes. After we got done rock picking all us girls got in the mule as Mike showed us a bunch of different places that he hung out as a kid. He showed us his favorite fishing spot and there happened to be a couple of kids I knew there fishing at the time. I thought I looked like poop with me being in dirty old clothes and no make up on and I made the mistake of telling Mike not to stop and talk to them like he wanted to. So after me saying that he made a special stop at the fishing hole and talked to the boys about me, I was so embarrassed. But honestly I will never forget that day and of all memories of spending time with Mike that is the one that sticks out the most to me. I am very much thankful that I got to spend time with Mike and that I feel comfortable enough to think of him as a Grandpa. I love both of these Grandpa's very much and now they are both watching over me up in heaven.