The Pain of Watching a Boy Becoming a Man

The Pain of Watching a Boy Becoming a Man

I violated my grandfather’s trust, and he wasn’t happy about it. I tried to protect him. Instead, I triggered the moment that changed how he saw me forever. When my mother divorced when I was four, we moved in with her parents. We remained with them throughout my growing and developing years. He was the father figure in my life. He was stoic and generally unemotional, a very good man who loved me with hesitation. At this stage of my life, I figu…