May 27, 1924 - July 31, 2011
I lost my grandpa yesterday.
It's hard being 33 weeks pregnant living in Texas and unable to fly up for the funeral. I want to be there so bad! It's been a long journey of suffering for my grandpa since his first stroke in 1995. Being in a rest home for 15 plus years hasn't been easy on any of us. The past couple of years grandpa didn't know some of us when we visited, and it was really hard to see him unable to talk, laugh, walk or run. But now, he is walking on the streets of gold. Seeing his Savior face to face. Reunited with Grandma who passed in 1993.
My dad is the oldest child in his family, and when I would go with him to visit his dad, my grandpa, it warmed my heart to see my dad rub grandpa's forehead, hold his hand...showing such comfort to him. My dad was by his side when he took his last breath. I can only imagine the moment when he opened his eyes in heaven....
I have many, many precious memories of my grandpa from my childhood. We lived in a house behind their house, so we were practically at grandpa and grandma's house everyday! We had picnics at the red picnic table in the back yard, my sisters and I would play store in the well house, sitting on the front porch with grandpa and grandma and watching the cars go by, playing on his blue car carrier truck from work, picking vegetables in the garden next to his house, going to their house during winter storms when the power would go out because they had a gas stove, family dinners at the dining room table when grandma would make a delicious ham, riding the bus with grandpa when he would pick up children for the bus ministry, eating big lifesaver suckers on the bus, walking into the kitchen and seeing him and my dad drinking a cup of coffee, watching grandpa and grandma reading the Bible together in their chair in their bedroom every night, Listerine, the green buick, the yellow van, those blue works shirts and blue pants, walking in and watching him shine his shoes on his shoe holder box, going to the second floor and talking to grandpa and grandma through the vent on the floor, listening to grandpa laugh and laugh at Home Alone, watching how my grandpa would care for my grandma after her strokes, seeing how much he missed grandma when she passed away....
I know that grandpa is in a better place, he isn't suffering anymore, and he now has a glorified body, but I still miss him and can't wait to see him again in Heaven!
