Grandpa In A Coma (I Know I Know It's Serious)

My grandpa, my dad's dad, is in a coma. The doctors say it doesn't look good. I say, "Good riddance."

I struggled with this a bit the other day when I received the news. I struggled because I wasn't sad, and in fact I was almost happy. Happy that it's finally almost over with. Happy that my father can finally be rid of the bastard. I don't mean to suggest that I was joyful, but I've lost loved ones before and this sure didn't feel a bit like that.

My grandfather is famous- in a minor, local sort of way. If you're from the mid-Atlantic you've heard of him. Two famous companies bore his name, and there was a time in the 80's and 90's when that name was ubiquitous. I could even honestly say that those two companies had a far more reaching impact on their respective industries. They were innovative, very much in the vein of "Why didn't I think of that?" My family has a knack for coming up with ideas like that, and my grandfather started that trend. In that regard I respect him. In just about every other regard he sucks.

He came to this country in the early sixties with almost no money. He built a respectable business in the District and moved out to the suburbs, gradually expanding. In the eighties he jumped on an infant industry and quickly became the biggest in the business. The growth of the company coincided with my childhood, and it was fun to be a kid with a famous family and a famous name. It was also nice to have a dad who got to work and make a very decent living at the company. I (and most other people) figured my family was set for life. We were an institution from North Carolina to New York and all the way out to Cleveland. But the big boys got involved in the industry and started to muscle grandpa out. He was determined to remain the sole owner of the company, and he couldn't compete with the publicly-owned behemoth that was gobbling up market share and to this day dominates the industry. Rather than sell early, he held on and fought, to the grave detriment of the bottom line. A few years later he would sell the company for 40% of what he was initially offered, his ego having robbed him of tens of millions of dollars.

The sale of the company left my father in a precarious position. His salary was slashed, and it could not meet the lifestyle our family had become accustomed to. We were not on the high hog by any means, but we were in for a serious adjustment. We packed up and moved further out into the deep suburbs. My dad was unhappy with the way things had turned out, and pissed to be working for a new company for far less money. He decided he wanted a change, and he needed my grandfather to help.

He begged for the money to buy back a small portion of the original company and begin again, as the company was before my grandfather's idea had taken off. It wasn't easy, and my grandfather was reluctantto give up the cash. Since he had sold the company he had begun to live a lifestyle even more lavish than before, as he now had no work to occupy his time. After enough pleading, he agreed to give my dad the money but wanted to retain ultimate control of the new/old company. Bad move, dad. But nevertheless my dad took the deal and reopened shop, and we had a company again.

After a few years of seven day workweeks and long hours the company hadn't really grown much. Then suddenly my dad stumbled upon an idea. It was so simple, just a minor change to an existing established business practice. But the idea took off like wildfire, and suddenly we were famous again. Orders started pouring in, and the company was growing faster than we could manage. By this time I was old enough to work for the firm, and I took some time off college to help out. This was right in the thick of the internet gold rush, and we were poised to make a fortune. Wary to make the same mistake he had in the past, my grandfather explored the option of an IPO and again I thought my future was set. But seemingly out of nowhere my grandfather sold the company outright, and kept the proceeds for himself. My dad and other members of the company got a small payout, but my grandfather kept the big bucks and stock options. The options would continue to grow in value, and I can only assume that my grandfather's fortune reached astronomical levels. My dad, meanwhile, got dick. My father had done all the work, had come up with the idea and nurtured and slaved over it, while my grandfather spent his days gambling and watching his fortune grow. Yet when it was time to reward my dad for what he had done, my grandfather hung him out to dry. All of this because my dad had allowed him to maintain ownership of the company, a move he had to make in order to buy back the company and provide for his own family.

You can probably guess some of what happened next. The tech bubble burst and grandpa's fortune came back to earth. That stock isn't worth the paper it's printed on anymore, although at least for his sake he sold it long ago. His lifestyle went from lavish to decadent to debaucherous, as he blew untold millions on gambling, women, booze, and lord knows what else. At first he was generous with the family, paying for things like college tuition and medical expenses. But as the money dried up the purse strings grew tighter. He was hell bent on blowing everything he had, and he needed the resources to continue to live the way he grown accustomed to. He cut everyone off save the whores and hangers on.

His health went from bad to worse, and a few months ago he left the States to return to the country where he was born. He left behind a ton of debt and almost nothing of the money he once had. Now he's lying in a coma in a hospital bed in a third world country, draining what's left of his money on medical care that his American health insurance won't pay for. With the big money gone, there is no one left to care for him save the family he fucked over.

So I'm not sad that he's finally going to die. I don't want the bastard to suffer, but I'd sure like him to realize what he's done to my dad. I hope that my grandfather, in his son, sees a man who knows what it's like to be a father to his children. And I hope that, right before he dies, he realizes that for all his success in the business world he will never be half the man my father is. Good fucking riddance.