These days, he volunteers in soup kitchens in the Bronx, fills a newly installed backyard pond with koi, takes his grandsons to hockey practice and even knows his granddaughters' college roommates by name, pronouncing Michaela with the Spanish accent that has always sprinkled his speech, "Meekah-ehlah".
Now, with two artificial knees, she said she is dreading a December trip she plans to make for her granddaughter's college graduation.
"I have a granddaughter in college and she's going to get some of it and I think I'll keep the rest myself," he said.
Holding everything together is Tari's formidable grandmother, Rumijah, recalled from her rural home to nudge her granddaughter toward college and fulfill the family's hopes of advancement.
It's my granddaughter's college graduation".
My granddaughter, now in college, fondly remembers when I would baby-sit and she would play the princess and I would do all the other characters.
But our granddaughter Maggie, a college sophomore, came up with an alternative built around a slogan: Just Say No to Trash! "I sure hope it's bright orange, " said Arnold, who suspects he is getting a T-shirt, "so I can be seen".
A grandmother we know told us how her college granddaughter took great umbrage when she asked about her boyfriend.
Her great-granddaughter is a college student in Florida, and plans to attend the inauguration on Tuesday.
My father did not live long enough to see even one of his five granddaughters graduate from college, marry and have a family.
My oldest granddaughter is investigating colleges for next year, and the "baby" of my grandchildren is already 9.
