Grandfather's watch

My grandfather passed away on May 18^th, 1998.  His death was probably one of the most difficult things that my family and I had to deal with.  He had a very difficult life – Soviet Army, German prisoner-of-war camp, escape, arrest, death row substituted at the last moment with 11 years of hard labor camps.  Freedom after 11 years of back-breaking labor in the coal mines of Vorkuta only to find out that his entire family died in German concentration camps. 

My grandfather was not the easiest man to live with, but he raised me, played sports with me, and taught me how to fix and build things.  Towards the end of his life I was the only person that he trusted and he insisted that I have the power of attorney over him.  During the last two days of his life my grandfather never regained consciousness – he looked like a mummy, sustained only by morphine drip and an oxygen mask.  I was 20 years old at the time.  One day a very polite doctor called me at work and said that there was no chance of my grandfather coming out of the coma and that I should talk to my family about disconnecting him from the machine. 

I can honestly say that that decision was the most difficult thing that I have ever done.  And even though no one in my family blamed me for it for years I still felt guilty about pulling the plug. 

Shortly after my grandfather was buried my grandmother gave me his old watch.  Apparently the body of the watch is solid gold – it was the first expensive thing that my grandfather bought after being released from GULAG.  When she gave me the watch it was broken – the wind-up knob was stuck and there was no way to wind the watch.  Years ago I went to several jewelers/watch repairmen but everyone  I asked either told me that they could not fix a half-a-century old Soviet-made watch, or they looked too shifty and I didn't want to trust them with my grandfather's memory.

For 8 years the watch sat in a box in my closet.  Occasionally I would come across it and entertain the idea of fixing it.  And then the watch would go back to the closet.  A couple of weeks ago my girlfriend gave me a beautiful rosewood watch box for my birthday.  Even though I don't have many (actually any) expensive watches I've accumulated quite a few that have sentimental value to me.  As I was going through all my watches to place them in the box I came across my grandfather's watch once again.  This time I did not simply put it in the box – I wrapped it in a bit of soft cloth and took it to a Russian jeweler in Squirrel Hill – he came highly recommended as an honest dealer and not overly expensive.  Ten days and 60 dollars later I had my grandfather's watch back and in working condition. 

The weird thing is – after I put the watch on my wrist I felt the guilt that I carried all these years soft of fade away – it was as if my grandfather patted me on the shoulder and told me that everything is going to be OK.