I Was Still a Virgin at 26, and Dad Always Warned Me, “Stop Sitting on Grandpa’s Lap and Be Careful Around Him.” I Never Listened… Until Grandpa Came to Me One Night and Asked, “Will You Sleep Beside Me Tonight?”

I looked at Grandpa.

“You let me think Dad was warning me about YOU?”

“I kept telling him to explain it better,” Grandpa said.

Dad shook his head.

“And I kept telling him to stop letting a grown woman climb all over him like she was still eight.”

For the first time that night, I laughed.

Then I immediately started crying.

Grandpa reached out.

I hesitated before hugging him carefully.

“So why did you ask me to sleep beside you?”

His expression changed again.

He opened the album to another photograph.

Grandma Rose was sitting beside his hospital bed.

“She was twenty-six when that was taken,” he said. “I had an accident at work. Nothing like tomorrow, but I was terrified.”

He ran his finger over the old picture.

“She stayed awake beside me all night.”