Buddy

"Why Buddy?" I asked.

Bry and I were newly dating, our relationship in the infantile stage. The time where new discoveries happen daily and conversation topics abound. We were freshmen in college, both living hours away from our respective families. Thus, there were limited interactions with them. I had yet to meet his parents and I think he may have met my father accidentally before we were a "we". (Having a Labor Day birthday, I returned home for my 18th instead of spending it with newly made friends).

"When I was little, we would go places and he would always say to me,  C'mon buddy. I guess being little, I just copied what he said and referred to him as Buddy too." he said. "It just stuck.".

So Dad or Daddy was replaced with Buddy. When his brother was born, he too referred to him the same way.

Buddy.

When I was pregnant with Moira, there were a multitude of conversations with a topic of names.

"I feel like I'm too young to be a grandma." my mother in law sighed.

"I kind of like Pop" my dad negotiated.

"He or she can call me whatever he or she wants!" my mother demanded.

The deviation of grandmother and grandfather would be an extensive process for those three. Ultimately, Grammy with the bracelets, Popsie, and Grammy (sometimes Regular Gram) emerged, but with Bryan's father, there was no need for a conversation.

He was Buddy,
plain and simple.

On Saturday, July 2 Buddy passed away after spending almost eleven years tormented from the after effects of numerous strokes.

Today we gather for his memorial and I can't help but think that the definition of Buddy has been forever altered.

Buddy 
–noun
1. comrade or chum (often used as a term of address).
 –verb (used without object)
2.. to be a companion; be friendly or on intimate terms.
-noun
3. Father and grandfather

Good bye, Buddy.

Mo, Bry, Maeve, & Buddy

The three grandchildren together
Blaise, Mo, Maeve, & Buddy