I am in the process of preparing on e of my last speeches needed to earn my Distinguished Toastmaster award (DTM)…”The Touching Story” in the Storytelling manual. I was thinking of talking about the two foul balls I caught at baseball games and how they are both still in the family, then going on with something about baseball being a bond between father and son.
But the more I sat and thought about that, the less sense it made to me. Not only that, nut something else kept entering my mind as an apt subject for the Touching Story. And that would be my grandfather.
I can’t say were particularly close, since we lived primarily on opposite coasts. But, I was his first grandkid and I believe that counts for something.
My grandfather grew up a poor farm boy in Texas during the Depression. He flew B-17s in World War II and then became an optometrist in Southern California. He was a successful man with a growing family and practice.
Watching me grow up, I believe he took pride in watching us grandkids grow up and graduate from high school, college and graduate school. He and my grandmother helped me get an interview for a Hill internship my freshman year in college. He travelled across the country to attend my wedding, despite declining health.
He was a good man. Always encouraging me from afar. I also think my sense of humor comes from him.
One thing, though, that sticks with me, is that he started telling me about Toastmasters while I was still in high school. I wasn’t old enough, or inclined, to join, but it was something he kept coming back to over the years. I never followed through on it until grad school years later—and then I took a break for another six years.
I rejoined Toastmasters after I settled into a job in Washington. Within a year, my grandfather passed away.
That Fall, I took my family to visit my parents. My mother told me my grandfather had left me something and she gave me this tiny Toastmasters lapel pin that had been his years ago. This pin is so old that the backing screws onto the post. It is also a bit smaller than the ones TI currently offers.
That pin is stuck in the blazer I keep at work. It goes with me to TM events, and to meetings with senior staff. I treasure it.
My mother also gave me a newspaper from May 1949. On the front page, there is a picture of my grandfather and details from that week’s Toastmasters meeting—my grandfather was the Best Speaker, again, the article said.
My grandfather and I never had an opportunity to discuss his Toastmasters career. I tried asking TI once, but records like that aren’t available. I know that since t hen, my Toastmasters career has gone farther than even I could have anticipated.
I believe that my grandfather’s interest and words gave me the push to get started in Toastmasters. I also believe, that as I attain my DTM, it is my grandfather who continues to pull me forward.
