Grandpaw (Arthur Wilson)

Grandpaw (spelled the way it's pronounced) was really my Great Granfather but my mother and them called him Grandpaw so I called him Grandpaw. He was my Grandmother's daddy and he lived with my Aunt Clara, his sister. Grandpaw was ill in the head but he wasn't scary. He kept his room dark just like Uncle H.C. but I never feared him or the room. He was mad as a hatter and self medicated with alcohol, but he was funny. We would sit out on the porch together and talk and feed stray cats. I barely understood a word he said cause he mumbled all the time but the time we spent together is a fond memory. He would take me with him to pick up cans all over the neighborhood. He lived with his sister because of his health status. She called him "Brother" just like my little girl calls my little boy. She saw to to him cause he couldn't see to himself. That's a Southern tradition. If there's a mentally ill relative, they don't stay in the "booby hatch" unless they're dangerous. I believe he lived w/ my Grandmother for a time but I don't know how long that was because it was before my time. After he died, we were doing some spring cleaning in my Grandmother's house and we found a bottle of Beefeater Gin, Grandpaw had hidden. He wasn't supposed to be drinking. I kept that bottle of Gin and now one of my Aunts has it.