Pure Grant

We all have personality traits that although not individually unique, when taken together with all the other quirks we exhibit, make us extremely unique people. Here, we list that set of "special" qualities that made Grant the unique individual we all loved and will all miss. This list is in no particular order.

• Corvettes - not only did Grant love this classic sports car. It is also the car he always dreamed of owning, and even bragged that he had ESP and knew when one was approaching before anyone else could identify it.
   
• Juggling - When I first showed Grant how to juggle three tennis balls (something I could maintain for only a few seconds), he went on to become an extreme juggler, able to keep a variety of objects in the air indefinitely. Last year he bought a set of official juggling bowling pins.
   
• AC/DC - Despite the fact that Angus Young and company made their debut in 1973, seventeen years before he was born, they were Grant's favorite band and Angus was his hero. His room is a shrine to the Australian rock band and one of his biggest dreams was to buy the Angus Young Signature Gibson SG guitar.
   
• Magic - From the earliest age, Grant could not get enough magic. He bought dozens of tricks, always dragging us to every magic shop he ever saw. In the months before he died, he had taken up learning card tricks and was in the process of mastering many slight of hand moves, which kept us mystified to no end.
   
• Guinness Book of Records - Grant purchased almost every issue of the Guinness Book published during his lifetime. He often talked about finding a record he could break and we know he would have done it, if given the chance.
   
• Free Running - In the year preceding his death, Grant had become an ardent free runner. He would don his running gloves and launch himself into the back yard, climbing over all obstacles with an ease and grace we had never seen. He would leap from our dock in one fluid motion and glide effortlessly across the ground, only to lift himself back up in one deft movement. It was amazing to watch.
   
• Swords - when your thirteen year old tells you he wants a sword for Christmas, it is a little un-nerving. However, during his teen years, Grant wanted swords from different eras and different cultures. True to his word, he never "played" with any of them and had started to build a serious collection, which we will keep forever.
   
• Sunflower Seeds - When Grant was about 9 or 10, he played baseball with the Irmo Little League. All the players would stuff sunflower seeds in their back pockets which they chewed on continuously on the field and off. Even though Grant only played ball for a couple of years he never stopped loving his sunflower seeds. His room is still full of them, on the floor, on his desk, everywhere!
   
• Card tricks - following on from his love of magic came a fascination with card tricks. Grant bought several books on card tricks and was getting to the point where he would practice for hours in front of the mirror until he got each trick perfect.