My maternal grandfather, Paul Kelly, was born in July 1934.
He had one older sister and three older brothers.
He worked as a television repairmen for a while before going to university to study physics.
He met my grandma, Jackie, on a blind date while he was in university in Montreal.
They got married in September 1960, right after graduation.
They moved to Ottawa so my grandpa could work on his PhD in physics.
Over the next four years, they had four kids. Living in a one-bedroom apartment, while my grandpa was finishing up school.
After completing his PhD, he got a job at the National Research Council of Canada.
They had their fifth child a few years later and finally moved into an amazing house.
Grandpa worked at the NRC for his entire career. One of his big projects was designing badges for nuclear facilities that changed color when you had been around too much radiation.
He got to travel to research conferences all around the world. His favorite trip with my grandma was to Scotland and Ireland.
One of his favorite foods was Shepherd's Pie. One of his favorite movies was The Princess Bride.
When I was two and my sister was a baby, my family moved to Texas. We saw my grandparents about every two years. My grandpa always told us kids funny stories, like the one about invisible elephants living in his backyard.
My grandpa is loved by his wife of more than fifty years, his five children and his eleven grandchildren.
He will be missed by all of us everyday.
