In memorializing you over the past few days, looking through old pictures, notes, and papers, I've gotten to know you and your life in ways I never would have imagined, in ways I now regret not discovering before your life ended.

You had named me after your father, and used the English variant of his name on my birth certificate. I've seen where you made notes on the back of photos of me as a child, using his name. That's also the name you used to call me when you were expressing your immense fondness of me in my very young days, a moniker I have not heard uttered by you, at me, for decades. Yesterday, I found your handwritten annotation on the envelope of a very recent document addressed to me - in pencil, you had written, "Andrija". Pokoj ti duši, tata.

You will truly be missed Grandpa, you already are. I will make sure Raina always remembers her great-papa. I'm glad you were a part of my life and our family and I'm so happy my daughter got to know and love her great-papa. I love you, rest in peace. Hope we meet again one day.

My grandfather forever lives on in our thoughts. Words cannot express our grief.