IN HONOR OF ONE PUNCH JACK
by Jamie Hayles

ll my life I've been Christian, as have the rest of my family. But my grandpa was extremely stubborn and always denied our invitation to go to church with us, even when we were little kids and gave him a card to go with us. He just gave it back and said, “I already know enough about God!” Clearly he didn't or he wouldn’t have been the way he was! He was old, cranky, got in fights at bars, smoked and from what I've heard also chewed tobacco.

At the time my dad, mom, older sister Kelly, younger brother Sam, and I lived with my grandma and grandpa for maybe 5 years or so until we decided it was time to move. But before we did my grandpa had a blood clot in his leg (I think) and had to go to the hospital to get it removed. But before they actually did he got gangrene and they had to remove his leg from above the knee. It was a really big deal in our family, and since the doctor didn't think he was going to make it, my grandma wanted him to except Jesus into his life before he died. My grandpa was so scared at this point that he did. Our pastor came down to see him, prayed with him and they successfully took it off. And with every other person who had something taken off, it was extremely gruesome!

Weeks upon weeks, months upon months, years upon years his health went down hill. He was taken out and put into more hospitals than I can count. Everytime he went into surgery the doctors said, “He's not going to make it.” Yet every time he made it through! We knew it was no coincidence; God wanted him alive for a reason. Though none of us had a clue what the reason was.

He was supposed to “die” so many times that eventually they started to call him the miracle man! After he had his leg taken off, he became a whole new man! He was no longer a bar fighting grumpy old man, now he was nice, understanding, a true caring loving grandpa. And I was finally able to except him as one. He joked around with us gave us candy from his stashes and he started into the art of painting! I was so happy that he was so loving. Now every time I went to give him a hug he'd always yell, “Watch out for my leg!” Knowing he's an old man you thought you've hurt the poor man! Until you realize that, the leg you thought you hurt wasn't there! Hehee!

He always reminded me, “one day you have to paint with me!” And I'd always agree that one day I would! But that day never came. Cause once again he was back in the hospital and without hope of life unless he used a feeding tube. Finally my grandpa denied the treatment. He pleaded, “No more, I want to die at home.” So they let him out back home, with no hope of living.

He was doing a little better. He was able to eat a little bit, not much but enough to survive. We hoped he would survive, but he started doing worse, and worse, and worse. Until one day when we were on vacation at the beach, we received a horrific call that our dear grandfather had died.

The family was in tears at the funeral. At the after funeral party my dear Uncle Mike brought life to the party, cracking a few jokes reminding us of the few good memories we had of his past life to lift our spirits. We try not to remember the harsh and painful memories of the hospitals, but the happy memories of the kind and caring grandpa, and father that we all loved.

In memory of Jack Clark
Son, Father, Grandfather

I hope you enjoyed this very short story of my grandpa. There are allot of details about him that I don’t talk about like him being in the army and in a battle, and his nickname “One Punch Jack,” because of the bar fights he was in well... let's just say they didn't last very long! You get the idea. Thank you very much for letting me tell you this story. I would have told you when he was born and died if I didn't have to ask my mom, she probably would have got choked up at just the thought of him dead. Like my mom said, “It doesn't feel like he's dead, it feels like he's on vacation or something.”