My Grandpa Brugger

On the left is my dad, Archie Brugger, in the middle is my grandfather, George Brugger and on the right is Raphael Brugger, my father's older brother, at my Aunt Sheri's wedding (my father's youngest sister).  I tried to clean up the slide before I copied it but it was starting to deteriorate.  That is the funky decorations on the white coats and shirts.

The middle picture was taken of my grandfather not too many years before he passed away.  The bottom picture is where my grandfather carved his name and my grandmother's name in this tree.  Grandpa Brugger's birthday was February 20th. I loved sharing a birthday month him and having a birthday so close to his. There are several pictures that we are surrounding a birthday cake. I can't tell if it is Grandpa's birthday or mine we are celebrating.  Sometimes we shared.  I always had a hard time getting along with Grandma Brugger but Grandpa Brugger was my my hero.  He tried hard to help me with my math.  Others - even teachers would get frustrated and I would get knocked on the head because they would think I wasn't trying.  Then we didn't know that being dys-calculate was a problem.  They assumed that if you could read and spell there should be no other learning problem.  I was always in the highest reading and spelling groups and the lowest math group.  Grandpa loved math and tried so hard to instill that love into me.  I will always be grateful for his patience.  I just wish it could have paid off in more ways than teaching me to be patient.  But then what better lesson than that to learn from someone you  love?