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Anton and Alice Grosel gave birth to Charles Grosel, my Papa. They both immigrated from Slovenia.

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Charles Frances Grosel was born on August 17, 1937. He was born in Collinwood, Ohio. He was the youngest of five kids; Bill, Hank, Alice, Eddy and Chuck. A fun fact is he shares his birthday with my mom (his daughter).

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Papa attended St. Mary's Collinwood. Since he was Slovenian, he was allowed to attend here. He was invited to be a part of an experiment where he skipped 7th grade. He had to take 2 courses over the summer, but said in hindsight he wouldn't have done it. He lost his friends and became the youngest person in his class.

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Papa's earliest memory he could recall was when he was 7 years old. His older brothers were in the military, away at war, and he described his house being empty. It felt weird and he couldn't quite understand why they were gone for a long time.

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Papa loved his house growing up. He said that he was able to walk to wherever he needed; this included the church, school, grocery store, and the movie theatre. There were also electric street cars used on the main roads only. School buses were not around until he was in high school.

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Papa attended St. Joseph High school. He was a freshman when they started building the school, so they added a new class each year. He was the first class to graduate from this school with 124 other people. Since he skipped 7th grade, he graduated high school at 16 years old.

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Papa has always loved math and science. He said that it is very black and white and there is always a right or wrong answer. He is not a very big reader and does not like interpreting poems.

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Papa played football all throughout high school. He was even going to go to college to play football, but when he saw that the college did not have an engineering degree and decided not to play.

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During the week, Papa and his friend group would go to shake places and get burgers and milkshakes after school. Since Papa lived near the beach, his friend group, which included 10 girls and boys, would have parties there on Fridays and Saturdays. They would dance and sing by the fire they had. On Sundays, there were CYO dances that Papa and his friends would attend.

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Grammy was Papa's best friend for over 60 years. She went to Villa Angela's (a school half a mile down from Papa's). Papa described her as a young soul who loved to have fun. She loved to roller skate, so she would also meet Papa to share a burger and a shake after. Papa said that Grammy loved every one of her kids more than life itself -- her happiness really showed when the kids did something to make her proud.

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One of the most fun dances that everyone looks forward to. Papa wanted to take my Grammy his junior year, but was told he had to take another friend. He finally got to take Grammy his senior year and was so happy.

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Papa attended Case Institute of Technology. He graduated at 20 years old with a degree in civil structuring engineering; he used his degree to construct highways and buildings to hold up equipment. He commuted from home and worked every summer to be able to pay for tuition.

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Since Papa's house was very small and there were a lot of people living in it, he would have to come home after school, take a nap, and then complete his homework between 10 pm and 2 am since no one was in the kitchen at this time.

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Going into freshman year, Papa worked for a cement contractor. He was a laborer so he made sidewalks, basements and driveways. Going into sophomore year, he would at a steel mill. He found this job on a bulletin at school; he recalled it being very hot with all of the furnaces there. Going into junior year, he worked with a friend from school whose uncle had a big trucking company. For his last summer in college, he interned at a construction company with an engineer. These jobs helped Papa pay for tuition.

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Papa and Grammy got married right before Papa graduated from college. Since he was only 20, his mom had to sign his marriage license and approve of it. They got married at a church in Euclid named St. Felicitus. They got married on a Saturday, but Papa had an exam on Monday, so he spent all day Sunday studying! Supposedly, there was a rumor that if you weren't married by 22 or 23 years old, you would be an old maid.

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This was the job that Papa had for a little bit right when he got out of college. He designed the structural parts of buildings and would travel to help build them in different places in the world.

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This was the other big job Papa had for approximately 30 years of his life after working at Arthur McGee. He built pharmaceutical buildings and also travelled a lot. He stayed in Canada for four years, and commuted home about every other weekend. This was hard on Grammy when she would have all eight kids at once, so Papa would take a couple kids with him for a couple weeks at a time. He also worked in Rome for a year, along with traveling to Alaska, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, South America, the Caribbean, and Aruba where he built a refinery.

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In his whole lifetime, Papa said that him and Grammy went on about 50 vacations together. They've gone to many states, including Alaska, Hawaii, New York, Fripp Island in North Carolina and Florida. They went to Disney World when it was first built for a conference. They have also been to Toronto, Canada. Some overseas vacations they've been on include Italy, Aruba and the Greek Islands. Papa said that the Greek Islands were their favorite because the weather and the people were very nice. Since they never went on a honeymoon, they went to the Greek Islands for their 25th and 50th anniversary. Another cool trip they went on was the QE-2 cruise ship, which happened to be the biggest cruise ship in the world at the time. They went from New York to Canada to Nova Scotia.

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Grammy loved babies, so they decided to have a big family. Papa said it was a joy to have a big family, but it was also a lot of work and expensive; all of the family vacations, colleges, and weddings. When one kid got sick, then everyone would get sick. Papa wouldn't trade his family for anything else though.

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Papa loves all of his grandchildren, especially the attention he receives from all of them. He thinks that it is very fun and he is never bored. He says that it is rewarding and he is never lonely since he is always so included in everyone's lives. He loves to attend our sporting events, parties, weddings, and really anything that involves family.

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Although Papa has been on many vacations in his lifetime, one of his favorite vacations was in Outer Banks, North Carolina in 2014. Most of the grandchildren and his kids went and spent the week together in a big house on the beach. We did a lot of activities, including kayaking with dolphins during sunrise, boating, and just laying on the beach tanning.

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Papa learned the music he liked was shown to him by his kids. In high school he liked 50s music; he listened to the Four Aces, Beach Boys, and Four Fishman. Grammy also liked jitterbug so he would dance with her and listen to that. He liked listening to the Beatles and Neil Diamond, after hearing his oldest child listen to them.

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Some of Papa's favorite memories included the days his children were born or any accomplishment his children had; this included getting married, graduating school, or even having kids of their own. Overall, Papa said that there are a lot of things that make him happy, so it is hard to pinpoint one specific memory.

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Papa loves Christmas. He says that it is the epitome of a big family enjoying and loving each other. In addition, he said Grammy would start to get ready for Christmas in August since she loved buying presents for the kids. All of the kids had to have the same number of gifts so no one felt left out. Every year, our big family does Secret Santa, hangs out, and eats great food. There's not anything else Papa would want than that!

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The hardest thing Papa has ever had to do

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The hardest thing Papa has ever had to do

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One of the hardest things Papa had to do was watch Grammy die a slow, painful death. He said it was hard to watch her suffer and it was a year of pain for everyone. It was hard to accept, but it truly never gets easier. He cried all the time during this year and when she passed away, he said it hurt all over again.

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Papa's favorite part of aging is that he can do anything he wants whenever he wants. He loves to go to lunch with Janet so he can do that whenever. It is only fun if you have the money to do the things you like, but as you get older, sometimes physically you cannot do all of the things you would like.

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Papa still has two places on his bucket list that he wants to visit: Australia and Switzerland. He wants to see the beautiful mountains in Switzerland very badly.

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Remember all of the good times and the happy family and try not to dwell on the past times. If you dwell on it, life will be super sad. Looking at the good things in life bring peace and makes accepting the bad things in life easier.

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All of Papa's Kids and Grammy in North Carolina

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All of Papa's Kids and Grammy in North Carolina

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Papa built this cabin in 2001. It was the Grosel family cabin where we used to get together every summer and hang out. Sadly, we ended up selling it a few years ago, but this cabin holds so many memories.

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Another picture of the Grosel family cabin.