Three Things My Pop-Pop Taught Me

1973 - First Grandchild (Me!)

2015 - 91st Birthday Party

Albert Henry Shanabrook

August 16, 1924 – October 20, 2016

Three things my Pop-Pop taught me:

1. Live up to your potential. He always wanted (and fully expected) the best out of his kids and grand kids. He urged us not to waste our God-given talents and to use all our abilities to make a good life for ourselves, just as he did. He worked hard as an engineer and made a wonderful life for his wife and three kids and traveled all over the world. 
2. How to read a map. When I was a kid, he would take me in his little silver Honda hatchback (which I loved because I could see out the windows better than any other car), hand me a map and point to where we were and where we were going. Then he’d say, “Okay, tell me how to get there.” It was always local places, not far, but I sure did learn how to figure out directions!
3. To love, appreciate and want to play music. Every time I hear Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, I think of Pop-Pop. He would play the record for me all the time and tell me what all the instruments were (each instrument represented a character in the story). It was my first experience getting chills while listening to good music. He also got me started playing the clarinet, which I continued through college. Honestly, if it weren’t for playing an instrument, I never would have met Erik – and now look at the musical talent our daughters have. It all began with Pop-Pop!

I was so incredibly lucky to have known all four of my grandparents for such a large part of my life. To think that I didn’t lose any of them until I was in my 20s and now to have lost the last two of them in my 40s – what a lucky girl I am!