I don’t remember a single day I spent with my grandpa Ron where he didn’t have a smile on his face. And what a smile it was – like the first warm ray of sunshine breaking through thick Oregon clouds. Gregarious, joyful, and endlessly delighted to be around the people he loved, my grandpa often seemed to literally light up every room he was in. It as as though he brought the sun with him everywhere he went, making everything around him warm and bright.

Ron loved his family, and I’ll always remember how special I felt whenever I was around him. He was my biggest cheerleader through engineering school and he told all his friends how proud he was of me. I regret that the last time I saw him was over a year before he died in September 2021. I was stupid and young and didn’t understand how precious my time with him was. I saw him one more time for his eighty-fifth birthday, when we all got together over Zoom to celebrate. He was so delighted that he could talk to all of us over the computer! But I never saw him again. He was admitted to the hospital with COVID complications a week before he was supposed to get his booster, and died less than ten days later. The hospital didn’t even let me talk to him over the phone, but I asked a nurse to tell him that I love him. I don’t know if he ever got the message.

He was so proud when I told him that I had finally started my dream job as an engineer for NASA. Despite the overwhelming challenges of the pandemic, our spacecraft is due to launch on schedule in August. Our PI commissioned a plaque to go on the spacecraft, commemorating those we lost. My grandpa Ron is finally going up among the stars, where he has always belonged.