I Flew Home to Surprise Grandpa and Found His Bed in the Garage—Then 14 Pickup Trucks Pulled Up — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00I flew home 2 days early to surprise my
2. 0:02grandfather for his 85th birthday. I let
3. 0:05myself in through the side door with a
4. 0:07cake in my hands. His bedroom door was
5. 0:09open, but he wasn't in it. My brother's
6. 0:12wife was standing at his dresser trying
7. 0:14on a necklace. She looked up not even
8. 0:16embarrassed and she said, "Oh Tess, you
9. 0:19should have called. If you're looking
10. 0:21for the old man, he sleeps in the garage
11. 0:23now." I set down the cake. I walked out
12. 0:26to the garage. It was 31° outside and
13. 0:29there was my grandfather, a man who had
14. 0:32raised me from the age of nine, sitting
15. 0:34on an army cot in his winter coat with a
16. 0:37space heater at his feet. He looked up
17. 0:39and smiled and the first thing he said
18. 0:41was, "Please don't make a fuss." I made
19. 0:43a fuss. Six days later on a Sunday
20. 0:46morning, 14 old men in pickup trucks
21. 0:49pulled up in front of that house and my
22. 0:51brother's wife has never been the same.
23. 0:53Before I tell you how I found those 14
24. 0:56men, if you love stories where somebody
25. 0:58finally stands up for the old folks,
26. 1:01please subscribe to Shadow Revenge. It
27. 1:03really helps me keep sharing these
28. 1:05stories. Now, let me tell you about my
29. 1:07grandfather. My name is Tess. I am 34
30. 1:11years old. I'm a flight nurse. I work on
31. 1:14medical planes and helicopters flying
32. 1:17very sick people to hospitals that can
33. 1:19save them. I've been stationed all over
34. 1:21the place. I've learned to stay calm at
35. 1:2310,000 ft with alarms going off and
36. 1:26somebody's heart stopping. Nothing much
37. 1:29rattles me. My grandfather's name is
38. 1:31Sam. He spent 3 years in the army when
39. 1:34he was young and then for 50 years he
40. 1:36repaired clocks in a little shop on Elm
41. 1:39Street. He has big, careful hands and a
42. 1:41very small screwdriver. He can listen to
43. 1:44a clock the way a doctor listens to a
44. 1:46chest and tell you what's wrong with it.
45. 1:49When I was nine and my brother Luke was
46. 1:50seven, our parents died in a car
47. 1:53accident on an icy road. My grandmother
48. 1:56had already passed. Grandpa was 60 years
49. 1:58old, a widower who lived alone with 40
50. 2:01clocks, and he showed up at the hospital
51. 2:03in his one good suit, and he took us
52. 2:05home. He didn't know how to braid hair.
53. 2:08He learned. He didn't know how to cook
54. 2:10anything except eggs. So, we ate a lot
55. 2:12of eggs. Every night he came into my
56. 2:15room and wound the little clock by my
57. 2:17bed, and he said the same thing. Tess,
58. 2:20as long as this clock is ticking,
59. 2:21somebody's looking out for you. It was a
60. 2:23small, gray house at the end of Birch
61. 2:26Lane. He and my grandmother bought it in
62. 2:281964. He built the bookshelves. He
63. 2:31planted the lilac by the front step. It
64. 2:34was the only safe place I'd ever known.
65. 2:36When I left for nursing school, he drove
66. 2:38me to the bus station, and he gave me
67. 2:40that little clock. I've carried it to
68. 2:42every place I've ever lived. 2 years
69. 2:45ago, Grandpa fell on the ice and broke
70. 2:47his hip. I was stationed 1,100 miles
71. 2:50away, and I offered to quit and come
72. 2:52home. He wouldn't hear of it. He said,
73. 2:55you've got people to save. And that was
74. 2:58when my brother made an offer. Luke was
75. 3:0030, between jobs, and renting a place
76. 3:02with his wife, Amber. He called me and
77. 3:05said, Tess, don't worry about a thing.
78. 3:07Amber and I will move in with Grandpa.
79. 3:10We'll look after him. It'll save us on
80. 3:12rent, and he won't be alone. I was so
81. 3:14grateful that I cried. I told him, Luke,
82. 3:17thank you. I'll send money every month
83. 3:19to help out. And I did. $600 every month
84. 3:23for 2 years. For Grandpa's care. I
85. 3:26called every Sunday. Sometimes Grandpa
86. 3:29answered. More and more, Amber answered.
87. 3:32She'd say, he's napping, Tess. He's
88. 3:34doing great. He's just tired. And when I
89. 3:37did get him on the phone, he always said
90. 3:39the same thing. I'm fine, sweetheart.
91. 3:42Don't you worry about me. You've got
92. 3:44people to save. I should have heard it.
93. 3:47I can hear a failing heart from across a
94. 3:49helicopter, but I didn't hear it in my
95. 3:51own grandfather's voice. This October, I
96. 3:54got some unexpected leave right before
97. 3:56his 85th birthday. I decided not to tell
98. 4:00anybody. I wanted to see his face. I
99. 4:02flew in on a Thursday, picked up a lemon
100. 4:05cake from the bakery on Elm Street, and
101. 4:07I took a cab to Birch Lane. The first
102. 4:09thing I noticed was the lilac. Somebody
103. 4:12had cut it down. There was just a stump
104. 4:14by the front step, and a new white
105. 4:16planter with a sign on it that said,
106. 4:18"Bless this home." The side door was
107. 4:21unlocked. I walked in with my cake. The
108. 4:23house looked like a magazine. All the
109. 4:26bookshelves Grandpa built had been
110. 4:27painted gray. All the clocks were gone.
111. 4:30All 40 of them. It was the first time in
112. 4:33my life that I'd ever been in that house
113. 4:35and heard no ticking at all. It was so
114. 4:37quiet that my ears rang. And in
115. 4:39Grandpa's bedroom, the room he'd shared
116. 4:42with my grandmother for 40 years, there
117. 4:44stood Amber. She was at my grandmother's
118. 4:46dresser, in front of my grandmother's
119. 4:48mirror, holding my grandmother's pearl
120. 4:51necklace up to her throat. She looked
121. 4:53up. She didn't even flinch. She said,
122. 4:56"Oh, Tess, you should have called." And
123. 4:59I said, "Where's my grandfather?" And
124. 5:01she waved her hand and said, "If you're
125. 5:03looking for the old man, he sleeps in
126. 5:05the garage now. It's so much easier with
127. 5:07the stairs. He likes it out there. He's
128. 5:10got his little workbench." There are no
129. 5:12stairs in that house. It's a ranch. It
130. 5:15has one floor. I set the cake down on
131. 5:18the hall table. I walked through the
132. 5:19kitchen and I opened the door to the
133. 5:21garage. And the cold hit me in the face.
134. 5:24It was 31° that day. The garage had a
135. 5:27concrete floor and no insulation. In the
136. 5:30corner, between the lawn mower and some
137. 5:32boxes, there was an old army cot with
138. 5:34two thin blankets. A little space heater
139. 5:37was plugged into an orange extension
140. 5:39cord. And all around the walls, on
141. 5:41shelves made from old boards, were his
142. 5:43clocks. All 40 of them, stacked up and
143. 5:46silent. Nobody had wound them. My
144. 5:49grandfather was sitting on the edge of
145. 5:51that cot in his winter coat and his wool
146. 5:53hat. He had lost at least 20 lb. His
147. 5:56hands, those beautiful, careful hands,
148. 5:58were red and chapped. He was holding a
149. 6:00very small screwdriver, trying to fix a
150. 6:03clock in his lap, and his fingers were
151. 6:05too cold to hold it steady. He looked
152. 6:08up. His whole face lit up. He said,
153. 6:10"Tessie." And then he saw my face, and
154. 6:13the light went out of his, and he said,
155. 6:15very quietly, "Oh, sweetheart, please
156. 6:18don't make a fuss. They've been having a
157. 6:20hard time. I'm a nurse." I knelt down on
158. 6:23that concrete, and I took his pulse, and
159. 6:25I looked at his color, and I listened to
160. 6:27his chest. I've seen a lot of terrible
161. 6:29things at 10,000 ft. I've never had to
162. 6:32work so hard to keep my hands from
163. 6:34shaking. I said, "How long have you been
164. 6:37out here, Grandpa?" He looked at the
165. 6:39floor. He said, "Since last winter.
166. 6:41Amber's mother needed somewhere to keep
167. 6:43her things, and they needed the room.
168. 6:46It's not so bad. I've got my clocks."
169. 6:48Last winter, almost a year. I had been
170. 6:51sending $600 a month. I said, "Grandpa,
171. 6:55who gets your army pension and your
172. 6:57social security checks?" He said, "Amber
173. 7:00takes care of all that. She said it was
174. 7:02too confusing for me." Grandpa, who has
175. 7:04repaired the most complicated watches in
176. 7:06the state, and has never once in his
177. 7:09life forgotten a number. I stood up. I
178. 7:11took off my jacket, and I put it over
179. 7:13his shoulders. I walked back into the
180. 7:16kitchen. Luke had just come home, and he
181. 7:18was standing there with a bag of
182. 7:20groceries. And when he saw me, he went
183. 7:22completely white. He said, "Tess, you're
184. 7:25not supposed to be here until
185. 7:27Christmas." I said, "Luke, our
186. 7:29grandfather is sleeping in a garage.
187. 7:31It's 31°." And my brother, the little
188. 7:34boy Grandpa taught to ride a bike,
189. 7:36looked at the groceries in his arms and
190. 7:38said, "It was Amber's idea. It's just
191. 7:41temporary." I said, "It's been a year."
192. 7:44He didn't say anything. Amber came up
193. 7:46behind him with the pearls still in her
194. 7:48hand. She said, "Tess, you have no idea
195. 7:51how hard it is taking care of an old
196. 7:53man. You send your little checks from
197. 7:55wherever you are, and you think you're a
198. 7:57hero. Well, this is our home now. Your
199. 8:00brother's the one who's here." I looked
200. 8:02at her for a long moment. Flight nurses
201. 8:05get very quiet in an emergency. I said,
202. 8:08"Thank you, Amber. That's all I needed
203. 8:10to know." Then I went back out to the
204. 8:12garage. I helped my grandfather into a
205. 8:14cab, and I took him to the nearest
206. 8:16hospital. He had mild hypothermia, the
207. 8:19start of pneumonia, and he was badly
208. 8:21underweight. The doctor, a young woman
209. 8:24who looked about 12 years old, read his
210. 8:26chart and looked up at me with tears in
211. 8:28her eyes. She said, "I have to report
212. 8:31this." I said, "I know you do. Please
213. 8:33do. I'll give you my number." Then I sat
214. 8:36by his bed, and I made a list, the way I
215. 8:39do on every flight. First, I called the
216. 8:42county's adult protective services, and
217. 8:44I told them exactly what I'd seen, and I
218. 8:47sent them the pictures I'd taken. Then I
219. 8:49called a legal aid lawyer who works with
220. 8:52older people, a tired, kind woman named
221. 8:55Mrs. Akoy. She came to the hospital the
222. 8:57next morning and sat with Grandpa for an
223. 9:00hour. She asked him just one question at
224. 9:02the end. She said, "Mr. Weller, whose
225. 9:05house is it?" And my grandfather sat up
226. 9:07a little in his bed. He said, "It's
227. 9:09mine, ma'am. Mine and my Helen's, since
228. 9:121964."
229. 9:14Mrs. Akoy nodded. She said, "Then let's
230. 9:17make sure everybody knows it." The bank
231. 9:19records took 3 days. Grandpa's pension
232. 9:22and social security had gone into an
233. 9:24account Amber had set up, and so had my
234. 9:27$600.
235. 9:28It had paid for a leased SUV, a lot of
236. 9:31bless this home signs, and a trip to
237. 9:33Cancun. Mrs. Akoy had Grandpa sign a
238. 9:36paper closing that access. She sent Luke
239. 9:39and Amber a formal written notice that
240. 9:41they had 30 days to move out, and a
241. 9:43demand for the money. The law takes its
242. 9:45time. I understood that, but I wasn't
243. 9:48going to let my grandfather wait 30 days
244. 9:51to sleep in his own bed. So I made one
245. 9:53more call. There's a VFW hall on Route
246. 9:569, a little brick building with a flag
247. 9:59out front. Grandpa has had coffee there
248. 10:01every Tuesday for 50 years. He fixed the
249. 10:04clock over their bar for free in 1978,
250. 10:07and it's never lost a minute. Amber had
251. 10:09stopped driving him there last winter.
252. 10:12She told them he was confused and didn't
253. 10:14want visitors. I walked in on Friday
254. 10:16afternoon. There were six old men at the
255. 10:19bar. I said, "Excuse me, I'm Sam
256. 10:21Weller's granddaughter." One of them, a
257. 10:23tiny man in a navy cap named Walt,
258. 10:26turned around on his stool. He said,
259. 10:28"How, Sam? We've been asking for a year.
260. 10:31Nobody will let us see him." So, I told
261. 10:33them. I told them about the garage and
262. 10:36the cot and the 31°.
263. 10:38Nobody said anything for a long time.
264. 10:41Walt took off his cap and looked inside
265. 10:43it. Then he said, very softly, "What do
266. 10:45you need, honey?" I said, "On Sunday
267. 10:48morning, he's coming home from the
268. 10:49hospital and his bed needs to be in his
269. 10:52room. I can't carry it by myself." Walt
270. 10:55put his cap back on. He said, "What
271. 10:57time?" On Sunday morning at 9:00, I
272. 11:01pulled up in front of the house on Birch
273. 11:02Lane with Grandpa in the front seat. And
274. 11:05behind me, one by one came the pickup
275. 11:07trucks. 14 of them. 14 old men got out
276. 11:11in their caps and their windbreakers.
277. 11:13Some of them had canes. One of them was
278. 11:1689 with an oxygen tank and he'd brought
279. 11:19his grandson to carry it. Mrs. Akai was
280. 11:21there with her folder and so was a very
281. 11:24calm sheriff's deputy because she'd
282. 11:26asked him to come along and make sure
283. 11:28everything stayed peaceful. Amber opened
284. 11:31the front door in her robe. She looked
285. 11:33at all those old men standing on her
286. 11:34lawn and she said, "What is this? You
287. 11:37can't come in here. This is my home."
288. 11:40Mrs. Akai opened her folder and said,
289. 11:42"Mrs. Weller, this is Mr. Weller's
290. 11:44house. He's the only owner. He's coming
291. 11:47home and he's invited these gentlemen
292. 11:49in. You've been given your notice and
293. 11:52you're free to stay until it runs out in
294. 11:54the garage if you'd like." Nobody
295. 11:56laughed. I'll tell you, that was the
296. 11:58strange thing. Nobody laughed at all.
297. 12:01Those old men just took off their caps
298. 12:04as they walked past her. They went into
299. 12:06that house and they went straight to
300. 12:07work and they didn't say a word. They
301. 12:10carried Amber's things out of the big
302. 12:11bedroom carefully and they stacked them
303. 12:14in the hall. They carried in Grandpa's
304. 12:16old bed from the shed where she'd put it
305. 12:18and then two by two they went out to the
306. 12:21garage and they carried in his clocks,
307. 12:23all 40 of them one at a time in those
308. 12:26shaky old hands. They carried them like
309. 12:28babies. They put them back on the gray
310. 12:30shelves and on the walls right where the
311. 12:32marks still showed. Walt helped Grandpa
312. 12:35out of the car. Grandpa walked up the
313. 12:37path on my arm past the stump of the
314. 12:39lilac with those 14 men standing on
315. 12:42either side of the walk with their caps
316. 12:44over their hearts. When he got inside,
317. 12:47he stood in the middle of his living
318. 12:48room for a long time. Then he walked
319. 12:50over to the big clock on the wall, the
320. 12:53one he and my grandmother got for their
321. 12:55wedding. He took a little key out of his
322. 12:57pocket. He'd kept it with him in that
323. 12:59garage the whole time. He wound it and
324. 13:02he set the pendulum going with one
325. 13:04finger. Tick. Tick. Tick. And then one
326. 13:08by one all those old men started winding
327. 13:11the others until the whole house was
328. 13:13ticking the way it was supposed to.
329. 13:15Behind me I heard someone crying. It was
330. 13:18my brother Luke. He was standing in the
331. 13:20hall with his hands hanging down looking
332. 13:23at the clocks. He said, "I used to fall
333. 13:25asleep to that sound." Here's what
334. 13:27happened after. Amber and Luke moved out
335. 13:30in 19 days. The county's investigation
336. 13:33found that the money had been misused
337. 13:35and Amber agreed to pay it back with the
338. 13:37court watching as part of a settlement.
339. 13:40Amber left Luke that spring. She took
340. 13:42the SUV until the bank took it from her.
341. 13:45Luke got a job on a road crew. It took
342. 13:47him eight months to come back to Birch
343. 13:49Lane. He stood on the front step with a
344. 13:52little lilac bush in a plastic pot. He
345. 13:54said, "Grandpa, I don't know how to say
346. 13:57it." And my grandfather looked at him
347. 13:59for a long time. Then he said, "You were
348. 14:01always a terrible liar, son. Come in.
349. 14:04The hole's still there by the step. Go
350. 14:06get a shovel." Luke comes every Sunday
351. 14:09now and he's learning to clean clock
352. 14:11movements. He's not very good. Grandpa
353. 14:14says that's fine. He's got time. And me,
354. 14:18I transferred to a flight program at the
355. 14:20hospital 40 minutes from Birch Lane. I
356. 14:23live in my old room. On Tuesdays, I
357. 14:25drive Grandpa to the VFW and Walt saves
358. 14:28him a stool. Grandpa turned 86 last
359. 14:31month. 14 old men came to the party and
360. 14:34I made a lemon cake. That night, I went
361. 14:36to say goodnight and he was sitting on
362. 14:38the edge of his own bed in his own room
363. 14:41with a very small key in his hand. He
364. 14:43held out his other hand and I gave him
365. 14:45the little clock from my bedside, the
366. 14:47one I've carried all over the world. He
367. 14:50wound it and he handed it back. He said,
368. 14:53"As long as this clock is ticking,
369. 14:55somebody's looking out for you." I said,
370. 14:57"I know, Grandpa. It's my turn now. If
371. 15:00this story touched your heart, please
372. 15:02subscribe to Shadow Revenge. There's a
373. 15:04new story every day and I'd love for you
374. 15:07to be part of it. So, let me ask you, if
375. 15:09you came home and found your grandfather
376. 15:11sleeping in the garage, what would you
377. 15:13have done first? And could you ever
378. 15:15forgive your brother? Tell me in the
379. 15:17comments.