Pap's Bible

I've been given many Bibles over the years and I still have them all. From the pink New Testament given to me as a baby at my dedication...

Please note the delightful brown crayon scrawling doubtlessly done by yours truly.

...to graduation gifts on through to the one I use today, that belonged to my late paternal grandfather.

 I even have copies of the Book of Mormon and the Quran, each purchased out of curiosity, though I'm not sure when I'll ever get around to reading them. My Quran, however, is very cool because it's in English and in Arabic on the same page and was purchased when I lived in Dubai. But I digress...As I so often do! ha!

Pappy was the only grandfather I ever knew. My mother's father died before I was ever born and from the stories I've heard about him now that I am an adult, I am glad I never knew him. While he apparently mellowed in his older age, he wasn't a nice man. My Pap, however, was a gentle soul. I never saw him mad in my lifetime, but was told many times over that if he was angry, you would know it and his temper was not to be trifled with.

As the only granddaughter on that side of the family, I'm not sure I could say that I was spoiled by any means, but our relationship was different than his with my brother or male cousins. I remember when he died when I was 17 and a friend of his came up to me and said, "He loved all of his grandchildren, but his granddaughter was special."

I like Pap's Bible because the Living Bible is an easy to read Bible (in my opinion anyway). Plus, inside is all kind of "Grandfather Stuff".  There are newspaper clippings and a letter he wrote to someone's wife 30 years ago apologizing for the church deacons moving her late husband's picture accidentally out of the vestibule of the church.  Plus, there's this:

That's in Pappy's writing and I just think it's really cool.  When I read through different chapters of the Bible I will see passage that he marked for whatever reason and now I find that I do that too.  I mark verses that speak to me or that I feel are particularly significant.  I'm not sure I ever would have considered writing in a Bible unless I had see that he'd done it first.

I had to get some Super Glue and paste parts of the binding of the Bible back together over the weekend. They had become loose and detached from years of use. I'm not sure how long he had the Bible, but I'll definitely be keeping it forever.

Interesting (to me, anyway), I also have my maternal grandmother's Bible which is identical to Pap's.  Obviously it doesn't have the same letters and clippings and stuff inside it, but it's the same Bible.  I'll be keeping that one as well.  Along with all the others that I have.  I'm not sure if my nieces will ever have an interest in them, but maybe someone else will want to hold on to those little pieces of history when I'm gone.