The following six-part series is excerpted and adapted from The God and the Ghost: Two Grandfathers, a work in progress.*** The author's grandfather, Edward M. Gertz, c. 1949.My father dreams about his father. Dad’s ninety. Poppy’s been dead for thirty-four years.In these dreams, Dad and Poppy, both adults, have a great, feel-good father-son relationship, man to man, as equals. Things were not, in reality, quite that way. Poppy’s shadow fell over my father like a sheet of lead. A long sheet, too: I’ve spent most of my life wearing it as a suit that felt great to have on but when...
