My name is Michael Wolcott. My grandfather passed away four weeks ago. He was 78 years old. My family cleaned his house out three weeks ago, and one of the things we kept was the computer we gave him for Christmas two years ago. It was always running whenever we would go over to his house, and we never really knew what he spent his time doing with it. He would always talk to my cousin and me about emailing us, but we never received any email from him. Yesterday I decided to plug his computer in and look around to see what my grandpa had been doing with it, and I found this blog in his web history. I read through all of what he had written, and I read through all of the messages in his inbox. I also thought for a long time about what I should say here, if anything.

My cousin Amelia and I used to spend a lot of time at my grandma and grandpa’s house when we were little, because both of our families lived in the same city as them. But ever since our families moved to different towns 6 or 7 years ago, we began seeing less and less of grandpa. The last time either of us saw him before he died was this past Christmas, and I can’t even remember when I saw him before that. I’ve spent the last three weeks feeling really guilty about not spending enough time with him these past few years. And I’m sure I will keep feeling that guilt for a long time. But after reading through all of the messages he received from you all, I’m amazed at how many people out there – people who never even met him – were so interested in him and cared about him.

So thank you all for spending the last year of my grandfather’s life making him feel like he had someone to talk to. It was more than Amelia or I had been doing for him.

I also want to encourage anyone out there reading this to take a minute to call your own grandpas, or grandmas, or even mom and dad to say hello, and to let them know that you’re thinking about them. I wish that I had done the same.

Thank you, and goodbye.