What an amazing and well-written (beautifully written, literary) post! Just when I'd read @owasco's and thought her the clear and obvious winner, you have offered up some serious competition. You really have a flair for descriptive words--where to begin??--every paragraph leaps out at me. This:
I think that even if he lived not in the south, but somewhere in the Arctic, his love would melt all the glaciers and disperse the night. He would feed polar bears from his hand, and local tribes would come to him for good luck.
I love him.
He replaced my father and taught me everything that a man should know and be able to do. It wasn't some kind of special training, like Batman training in the League of Shadows. I just watched him and listened to him, and he was always ready to help me. It is the ideal parenting model to enable a child to learn the best by following the example.
I could go on. The last cigarette, the daughter who will remember him in his better days, not in his final moments, battered by cancer... so much packed in here! ... North/South, Winter/Summer, paternal vs maternal grandfathers. Well done!
Thank you, it's very nice to hear, especially when it turns out that you have invested a part of yourself in such a post.
I see that you also published a story in this topic. Unfortunately, I will be able to read it only on Monday. I will definitely do it! :)
You're under no obligation to read mine in return!
You're a fantastic writer. I will look for more of your posts. :)