That is a beautiful story.

My grandfather had a similar influence - bought me a Vic 20 as my first computer (optical/laser engineer, programmed in C). At 6 years old I did my very first programming in BASIC on that thing, wrote out a typing tutor from a book called Parrot - had a crudely animated parrot head that made noises when you typed wrong. Couple years back tried to find the Vic 20 in my parent's storage and sadly only the box remains :(