Meet my grandpa, George Becker Hesse, who taught me so much about living well and dying well.

Born in 1913 in Pennsylvania, his dad died when he was very young so my grandpa ended up settling in Kansas, farming his whole life.

This photograph had to have been taken in his twenties. Not sure, since it isn’t dated.

He was a major role model for me, right up to his death from Parkinson’s disease in 1998. He taught me how to fish, how to crack open a watermelon on a fence post on a summer day, how to love the earth, how to be a patient man, how to endure pain…and all this just by being himself.

He kissed my grandma every night before bed (she told us so) and she missed him so terribly after he died. He’s in my thoughts quite a bit even after all these years.

What’s really beautiful is how imperfect human beings can still be heroes.

And this print is so tiny; it’s only 1.5×2 inches! ~shared by @blainemonster