My grandparents met at Pitt’s pharmacy school.  My grandmother was one of the first women to go through the program.  My grandfather’s friend Lou wanted to date a a co-ed and asked my grandfather if he would take her roommate (my grandmother) out so they could double date, and my grandfather was okay with that. 

My grandfather grew up poor, like outhouse poor.  The story goes that he never had money for tuition, so once in awhile the dean would call him into his office and say “Deist, we’re gonna need some money soon,” and my grandfather would scrape together a few bucks and pay some of the tuition, in cash. 

Ever since I was a little kid, I called my grandfather by his first name, ”Freeman,” because he was never old enough to be a grandfather.  He was a pretty cool dude.