MY GRANDPA

I think that you have probably heard about a lot of people that seem to be very strict and
disciplined outside but actually, they care for people very much and have a warm,
comprehensive heart. And my grandpa was one of them. Although he passed away six years ago,
his image always appeared in my heart with treasurable moments we had together. I had attended
many funerals before, but I had never cried my eyes out like my grandpa's because, at that
moment, I had lost one of my beloved relatives and also my "big friend".

When I was born, he was in his seventies. He was tall, thin with liver spots on his skin. He
also had a square face, when he smiled, the wrinkle appeared as the sign of aging. But the most
interesting figure about him was his eyes, they were always bright and they seemed to look into
inside my heart and thought. Though he was old, his gait was still agile, he didn't even lose any
tooth and he hardly got sick, too. His favorite hobbies were planting trees in his small garden,
watching soccer and playing with neighborhood kids as well as his grandchildren: he often gave
sweets and cakes to them and whenever they met him, they always said: "Hello Mr.Third"
(because my grandpa was the third son in his family).

According to what my mother remembers, when she was a child, my grandparents' family
was so poor that they had to worry about every meal. My grandparents had seven children and at
that time, all of them were very young. Every day, at 3 or 4 a.m, both of them always pushed the
old three-wheel trolley carrying home-made food, vegetables, coffee, etc to the market to sell.
Since our grandparents' family was poor, he was economical. He kept all the salaries he had for
his family and didn’t waste even a penny. In the meals, they usually had rice mixed with sweet
potatoes (very little rice), and my grandpa always gave the rice for other members in the family,
and he ate those sweet potatoes. He didn’t smoke, drink beer or alcohol, either.

During his lifetime, my grandpa usually appeared as a strict and obdurate person, therefore it
would be hard to get along well with him. He was especially harsh when he taught my uncles
and aunts, but thanks to his education, they are now having good positions in society. He always
placed a higher priority on morality than academics, taught us carefully how to behave to the
people who are older than us, the table manners when we are in a party. He often rebuked us
harshly when we did something wrong, but from his lessons, we seemed to grow up and behaved
more decorously. For example, while we were eating, I unexpectedly took the food more than I
could eat and put the leftover away, he told me that my action was inappropriate and I needed to
change next time. He taught me that there were a lot of hungers out there, and when I wasted
food, it was just like I committed such a large crime.

Undeniably, my grandparents took care of me and my sister with love, but my grandpa had a
bigger impact on me. When I was born, he was the person who registered my birth certificate,
even for my sister seven years later. When I studied at kindergarten, he usually picked me up on
his old bicycle. As usual, I was taken to my grandparents' house in the summer, and so were my
cousins. He organized the game of "lottery": he would have three or four pieces of paper for us to
take, who took the longest could take a nap on his bed, following by his hammock, his carpet and
lastly, the "most unlucky" person had to sleep on the ground. Of course, we didn't usually satisfy
with the results and sometimes disputed to get the places that we wanted, but whenever this
happened, he gathered us together and gave us a meaningful quote "My grandchildren, listen to
me: In life, we couldn't always have anything that we want, so sometimes we have to make very
important decisions, and if you don't have the right to choose, just stop complaining and accept
what you have got right now, because you are already luckier than a lot of people in our city,
country, and even the world".

My grandpa didn't only teach me morality and good manners, but he also affected my
hobbies until today. He was my first teacher in origami now origami has become my habit, my
passion anywhere and anytime. Not only that, but he also composed Vietnamese poems and put
them all in his book (only for family members), and his poem collection has inspired me to
compose Vietnamese poems, too. As a result, now I have two nicknames "The Origami Boy" and
"Duy the poet".

In social life, my grandpa was the head of local people, and he had asked the neighbors to
help improving the roads in the area. He also donated the money to help poor neighbors, bought
necessities such as rice, cooking oil for them. An interesting factor was that he helped others a
lot, but he didn't ask them to do anything for him. Whenever someone wanted to give him
something to thank him for helping, he didn't receive anything but fruits or boxes of cakes and
always said that: "You have difficulties, I see that so I help you, you don't need to give me
anything, you shouldn't waste money". Moreover, he also decided to donor his body to one
hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for medical research and told his descendants to do the same in the
future.

Although my grandpa had to suffer from a lot of difficulties and obstacles in the past, he still
kept his character: strict, disciplined, sometimes harsh but also warm and comprehensive, always
dedicated to helping other people in his ability. Six years have passed and though there has been
a lot of changes in my life, my thought and memories about him always exist in my best
reminiscents.