I loved my Irish grandfather.

When I was little, he sat me on his knee and recited Master McGraw. I grew up listening to BBC news with him. He always listened to news from the Old Country. He taught me cribbage and, in the evenings, he always had time to play two or three games with me, always sharing strategy with me. He and my grandmother taught me to play bridge early and many an evening, we played three handed bridge.

Sometimes, he and my great uncle, took me to the country with them when they went to hunt grouse. It was then that I saw why my grandfather had been considered a great shot. He bagged grouse at distances I would have thought impossible. He took his shooting skill to France in 1915 and was both a sniper and machine gunner. Because of his ability with a machine gun, he was asked to be a gunner on an airplane. He declined. He said that tail gunner