Love, how do I express thee?

My mom likes to tell me that some people talk about their love and others show their love. I agree with her and I believe it is more likely that a ‘show’ of love is more often forgotten than a ‘talk’ of love. So I thought to put together a photo and text representation of a lifetime of ‘show’ of love.

My dad’s parents are of the ilk that predominantly ‘do’ rather than ‘say’. For instance, I arrived in Montvale at 9:16pm -- fifteen minutes past my grandparents’ bedtime. Despite the late hour, Grandpa picked me up at the train station and Grandma greeted me in the kitchen by asking ‘are you hungry?’ and subsequently feeding me. In addition to the niceties extended to me, I was intimately involved with evidence that grandpa has been quietly 'showing' us his love for years.

The most obvious example is the bedroom in which I sleep while visiting; he, my mother reminded me, expanded his young family’s house to better accommodate his wife and three growing children. As the photos show, the addition included a laundry chute, built-in bookcases, special doorknob holder on-ers (actual purpose unknown), and, years later, a built-in air conditioner.

You'll have to take my word for it that he also made things a bit less crowded at a certain Bethlehem stable by extending the ground floor; keeps he and Gram’s myriad pill bottles organized in a wood box; and supports good oral health with a custom tooth brush shelf in the ground floor bath.

So, when I told my grandpa ‘I love you and Grandma’ when he and I parted at the train station at 4am in the morning, I was not surprised when he said ‘oh, that’s nice.’ But I know the truth; it surrounds me every time I cross their threshold.