My Opa* ...

... is really sick right now. He got rushed to the hospital yesterday. I am sad.

If I had to sum up my Opa in one word, it would be 'righteous.'
He has the most patience of any person I have ever known.
When he prays I feel comforted and I feel like God is close.
He is quiet most of the time.
When he talks, it is either extremely funny or very wise.
He says my name different than anyone else in the world. It keeps playing over and over again in my head.
He has the biggest hands I've ever seen.

When they were teens my Oma was having a snowball fight with some others and the others began pelting her really hard. They wouldn't listen when she told them to stop. My Opa came along and stood up for her and scared all the others away. They started dating.

He is a fighter.
He is strong.
He doesn't give up.

In WWII he was a teenager and lived in Holland. He was forced to work for the Nazis. He had to drive a truck for them, alternating between collecting bodies from bombed out towns, and delivering potatoes to work camps. He put others before himself and saved the lives of some people in work camps by stealing potatoes. He broke the odometer in the truck so that he could drive a Russian general's daughter closer to the border to escape. They beat him up really bad for that. He still has a rib, completely broken off, floating in his chest. He eventually escaped and clung to the bottom of a moving train to get back to his home town. He went to my Oma's house and they hid him.

My Opa is the best example of a man I've ever known.
Please pray.

*my father's dad