Grandpa on All Souls Day
Though I finished my ofrenda today, I also finished an Ancestor Deck collage card for my beloved grandpa. This is the card I made for him and this is his story. All this has helped me get through election day. The incumbent always wins in the U.S. in the middle of war. Sigh!
EGBERT “ED” STREUR
June 27, 1870-March 4, 1950
I called him Grandpa Streur and from 1945 until his death, he lived in a small trailer next to our house in Sunland, CA. A "proper" Dutchman, Grandpa was born and raised in Holland, MI, married my divorced grandmother Grace and legally adopted my two-year-old father. This was the talk of the town back in the late 1800s. I only met my biological grandfather once when I was small; he played no role in our family and I'm doing some research now on why no one really talks about him. Grandpa Streur worked his entire career at the Hudsonville Creamery and Ice Cream Co., but took great pride in being one of Holland’s volunteer firemen. When my grandmother had to be permanently hospitalized, my dad relocated them both to California.
After school each afternoon, I went to my grandpa’s trailer where he told me family stories and always had special treats in his pocket—horehound drops and sometimes Black Jack gum. He always had a big cigar in his mouth, drove a 1938 black Chrysler and often wore a suit and tie when he shopped or came for dinner. My first bicycle was his old bike which my dad fixed up for me.
Grandpa Streur’s death when I was 13 was a blow, but I have continued to carry him in my heart all of my life.
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