Harry Day

Today is the birthday of the world’s greatest grandpa, my grandfather Harry Spencer. How does one describe the greatest granddad ever? Well it’s not easy but it is fun and it’ll definitely make you laugh.

Hailing from California, Harry James Spencer was one of six siblings. If you ever had the pleasure of seeing them altogether it was quite clear why they were all family. He laughed, bickered and was mischievous with all of them. As a young boy he met the love of his life and future wife, Erma Server. They married and she became Erma Spencer.

Erma and Harry ended up having three children: Lana was the oldest, Harry jr. was the middle child, and my mother Ruby was their youngest child. Harry and his wife Erma were both in the United States Army together during the Vietnam war. Their military career took them and their children all over Europe as Harry was stationed in Germany.

My greatest memories of my grandfather Harry was seen in the time I spent with him. Me and my sisters never saw him without our grandma Erma, we called them Cookie and Papa.

They would come from California to visit us a lot and we would go to California to see them a lot as well. In all this time I remember that Papa Harry between loving to travel and go out and about and also knowing how to sit in the living room and just chill out. He was the life of the party at family reunion and get together. You’d always catch Harry in a good card game and jamming out to the music of Parliament-Funkadelic.

Papa Harry spoiled me and my sisters a lot growing up, but it was his personality traits that were the greatest gifts that he passed along to us. It’s because of Papa Harry that I am a big movie buff. He and grandma Cookie always sent us movies as gifts growing up and my mother always had us watch them together as a family. My mom was always big on sunflower seeds as her favorite snack food. It was in my pre-teen years that I learned she got this trait from grandpa Harry as he was a big peanuts as a snack fan himself. He even kept a humongous jar of pistachios in his den at home and we would always eat some every time we came to visit.

Papa Harry also played a big role in inspiring my taste in music. Because he was always listening to George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic whenever I was around him, I too became a big fan of George Clinton and Parliament as far back as my toddler years.

Harry Spencer had the strongest will of anyone I’ve ever known. In 2010 his youngest daughter Ruby died in a car accident. It was in this moment that he felt the greatest pain that a parent could possibly know, the loss of a daughter. He was emotionally scarred, but he and grandma cookie kept moving forward with a form of strength that I still don’t understand. As if the worse pain ever wasn’t enough this wife Erma passed away two years later while he was still struggling in the aftermath of his daughter’s death.

Harry grieved his losses, but he kept living and found his smile again. He did this by staying close with all of his family as he always did and he embraced all the love and comfort that was given to him, never rejecting anyone. In 2013 I went to spend the summer with him at our family home in California. Unlike every time before it was just the two of us, but as he would say, we definitely enjoyed each other’s company. Though we always talked on the phone this would be the last time I ever saw him in person.

In the summer of 2018 Harry died after a long battle with cancer. The pain of losing him was profound for our family. When my grandma Erma died she was buried in a mausoleum and he had a space reserved in the same mausoleum proclaiming that he and Erma would play cards together when it was his time to join her. I’m glad he finally got to have that game with her.

Harry J. Spencer will forever be my hero and the greatest grandpa ever. Though he is no longer among the living, the impact that he made on his family and all who know and love him will live forever.

~~Dedicated to my grandfather Harry Spencer. Happy Heavenly birthday Papa.