Papa's Carrots

Dear Charlie and Ella,

My maternal grandfather, Grant Symmons Anderson or Papa as we called him, had an amazing green thumb. He used to grow all kinds of flowers and vegetables in his yard. He even had an old Beta video camera that he used to take footage of his garden and make us kids watch it. We all hated it, but the thought of him narrating the video of his roses makes me laugh now.

When Uncle Sherman, Auntie Jani, and I were very little, we used to love to go to his house on Browning(?) Street in Point Loma. One of our favorite things to do at his house was to go in the backyard and pick a carrot out of his garden. He would tell us which ones were ready to be picked, and we would slowly pull them out and pretend like we were Bugs Bunny saying, "Aaa, what's up doc?" as we ate them. At his funeral in 2010, my father told the following story. He said that there were times when Papa did not have any carrots in his garden for us to pick. He knew that we loved to pick them so much that he used to go to the grocery store and buy carrots with the tops still on, bury them in the garden, and then let us pull them out. After my dad had said that, I remembered the times where the carrots would come out a little more easily than usual. I remembered that sometimes the carrots were giant and straight and other times they were skinny and curvy with little root "hairs" on them. Either way they were delicious! Yum, I can almost taste the sweetness of those fresh picked (and store bought) carrots now. It warms my heart to think that Papa would go to all that trouble just to make us kids happy, and it's funny that I didn't know he did that until after he passed away.

Although Papa died before either of you were born, I want you to know about your ancestors. They are the roots of this family, and you have been blessed with strong roots who have nourished our family with love and knowledge. I hope to continue to share stories with you about your family members so that when we are all united again someday, you will feel as though you know them already.

Love,
Mom