Grandad passed away yesterday. Charlie Shelton was just shy of 102 years of age. When he turned 100, the newspaper ran a story about him. It said that he had “about” 74 grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren. This amused me greatly. Despite including attorneys, engineers, musicians, mathematicians, teachers, doctors, professors, rocket scientists…apparently, the Shelton clan does not know how to count. How many cousins do I have? I have no idea. I do know that grandad taught all of us a lot about living and made each and every one of us feel special.
Not bad for a sharecrop farmer who raised a family from a converted chicken coop and was told that he would not see the age of 40 after two long stays in a sanitarium and having most of a lung removed due to tuberculosis.
