The Thesis

My brother David’s PHD Thesis was a grand prize for Grampy, my grandfather.  At Christmas David would come home from the University of Minnesota, and it seemed to Grampy that David was taking a little too long to finish the thing.  Grampy would be well on with a sugar cane filled bottle of Portuguese Anisette when the inevitable question would come in his raspy, heavily accented voice, sprinkled with a wry laugh.  “David”, he would ask, “have you finished yet?”  Eventually he did and he has gone on to do wonderful work.