Nobody Else’s Business
I choose my grandfather as person of the year because he is different and dead. He gave us his house, special hats and bowl, and a magic mirror. He gave us a farm in the city. But mostly he gave me things like nobody else’s business.
Grandpa died on March 31. He traveled a lot and we hardly saw him until he was dead. He went all over the country but never brought anything back. He told us his memory has all the photos he ever needed, and special places were stuck in his heart. On April 1st they all got burnt up together, cremated and we put them into the river.
Before floating down the river my grandfather smoked a lot and ate meat and loved butter and salt on everything because it was like nobodyelsesbusiness. He died very skinny while coughing.
He was born in the country but lived in the city. He had many jobs. My mom says he was a private, waiter, painter, park ranger, and even worked in Alaska. But he didn’t like to talk about it because it was full of nobodyelsesbusiness.
He never married because it was nobodyelsesbusiness.
He had many friends in many places and one daughter (my mom), and she never married either and that was nobodyelsesbusiness he was proud to say. My mom lived with her mom and didn’t see him while he went to get educated on the road. When he returned many years later he told me he got an advanced degree from the university of life which allowed him to drink like it was nobodyelsesbusiness, and then he played the guitar on the porch and sang and swang until the police came by to put him to bed.
At the hospital he had one word for me -- nobodyelsesbusiness -- “Live your own life, follow your own path, use your own imagination, don’t let other people tell you what to do.”
At this point he was kind of telling me what to do, but with tubes in his nose and all that medicine, I think it was ok if he was telling me what to do. Because now he’s hanging out with catfish and can’t talk anymore.
My grandfather would be proud that I chose him as Person of the whole Year even though he’s dead and only lived three months this year. Thank you.
“Thank you, Corey,” Ms. Laura says. “That was very touching and personal… Now, who’s next?”
I take my seat next to Teresa. She is smiling. We will need to sit through three more rows of Person of the Year projects, President Obama and my grandfather seem to be the only two candidates -- and then – school’s out and it’s nobodyelsesbusiness what we do.
I hear grandpa singing and swinging on the porch.
"Nobody Else’s Business" excerpt from Corey Story ©2013 John Kirkmire
I choose my grandfather as person of the year because he is different and dead. He gave us his house, special hats and bowl, and a magic mirror. He gave us a farm in the city. But mostly he gave me things like nobody else’s business.
Grandpa died on March 31. He traveled a lot and we hardly saw him until he was dead. He went all over the country but never brought anything back. He told us his memory has all the photos he ever needed, and special places were stuck in his heart. On April 1st they all got burnt up together, cremated and we put them into the river.
Before floating down the river my grandfather smoked a lot and ate meat and loved butter and salt on everything because it was like nobodyelsesbusiness. He died very skinny while coughing.
He was born in the country but lived in the city. He had many jobs. My mom says he was a private, waiter, painter, park ranger, and even worked in Alaska. But he didn’t like to talk about it because it was full of nobodyelsesbusiness.
He never married because it was nobodyelsesbusiness.
He had many friends in many places and one daughter (my mom), and she never married either and that was nobodyelsesbusiness he was proud to say. My mom lived with her mom and didn’t see him while he went to get educated on the road. When he returned many years later he told me he got an advanced degree from the university of life which allowed him to drink like it was nobodyelsesbusiness, and then he played the guitar on the porch and sang and swang until the police came by to put him to bed.
At the hospital he had one word for me -- nobodyelsesbusiness -- “Live your own life, follow your own path, use your own imagination, don’t let other people tell you what to do.”
At this point he was kind of telling me what to do, but with tubes in his nose and all that medicine, I think it was ok if he was telling me what to do. Because now he’s hanging out with catfish and can’t talk anymore.
My grandfather would be proud that I chose him as Person of the whole Year even though he’s dead and only lived three months this year. Thank you.
“Thank you, Corey,” Ms. Laura says. “That was very touching and personal… Now, who’s next?”
I take my seat next to Teresa. She is smiling. We will need to sit through three more rows of Person of the Year projects, President Obama and my grandfather seem to be the only two candidates -- and then – school’s out and it’s nobodyelsesbusiness what we do.
I hear grandpa singing and swinging on the porch.
"Nobody Else’s Business" excerpt from Corey Story ©2013 John Kirkmire