Tatianna Gromowa

My Grampa was a very quiet person. He would sit outside for hours by himself, in a chair, right outside my grandparents garage. He very rarely spoke English and when he would speak to me or my sister, it was in Russian and English. He gave me my first taste of Vodka!!!!! I was very young but the memory is still in my mind!!!!! My grandparents were having a Christmas party and while Grandma was in the kitchen, he and my Godfather, George, handed me a shot glass, I drank it and spewed it right back out all over them!!! I can still hear Grandma yelling at them in Russian. There are things we never forget and they are always with us! Grandpa passed away at a hospital in Nyack, Ny on Valentine's Day in 2001. It was a wednesday and the day before, we ( Pop, Grandma, Tammy, and I) had been at the hospital to get approval to have his life support removed. NY has a strange policy about if you do not have a living will, your family has to go before the state board in order to take someone off of life support. Well, they granted it, and he passed away on the 14th after being off of life support for a couple of hours. Sometimes, I have trouble remembering his face, but it always pops into my head when I need it the most. He will always be an integral part of my life!