My grandfather was always my hero.

When he was 13 years old, he was working on the family farm when he got his leg caught in a combine (a large piece of farming apparatus). He survived, but lost the leg. Even though he was the eldest son, his family effectively disowned him, with the logic that a wooden leg would rob him of the mobility needed to run the family farm.

And so he said, “fuck you”, and ran away from home at the age of 16. He joined a band of migrant workers who were working the dirt farms of West Texas – he was the mechanic, and spent most of his time repairing farm equipment. While in the middle of nowhere, he met a lovely woman named Jewel, who was fated to become my grandmother. Unfortunately, her parents weren’t too keen on her marrying a one-legged migrant farm worker.

And so he said “fuck you” a second time, and eloped. While all this was going on, he was saving his pennies. Eventually, he had enough money to buy his own tractors and start his own company. He had one failed attempt with a disgruntled partner, but his second company started to get traction. By the time I was born, he ran one of the most successful construction companies in Eagle Pass, Texas. He’d built a million dollar business based largely on proving everyone wrong.

I remember as a child getting to operate a steam shovel at age 7. I also remember being surprised that all my classmates didn’t also have a rich cowboy grandfather that let them drive around construction equipment. I remember when I moved from Virginia to go to college at the University of Texas, being amused by all the kicker frat boys dressed in pristine cowboy boots, perfect cowboy hats and shiny belt buckles. This was the work uniform of my grandfather and uncles — these were clothes meant to get dirty and keep the oppressive Texas sun off of you.

My grandfather never really understood what I did once I got older. I tried to explain the whole virtual worlds thing, but it mostly went over his head. He was proud when I did the startup thing, but got lost whenever I tried to describe exactly what it was Ninjaneering was trying to build. To be fair, at the time, communicating with him was hard. His hearing started fading twenty years ago, as did his vision.

He also underwent five bouts with cancer. He was a proud man, and losing his facilities was visibly frustrating to him, but at the same time, he was a tough old coot. When the cancers started coming, we thought he’d be the first grandparent I lost. He ended up outlasting them all.

We were really hoping he would last to my upcoming wedding, but it turns out that this was not to be. My grandfather passed away a couple of weeks ago. He had lived a very full 87 years.