Grandpa Memories.

My grandpa died on February 6th, 2011 at 89 years. I thought I would take the time and share some of my memories of him. I think that my funniest memory occurred when we had the honor of driving him up to Mink Creek with our family. Grandpa had just suffered a stroke and we were kind of nervous for his condition. I think he knew that we were nervous and he kind of played it up. We were reviewing the alphabet with him and he was sort of playing dumb. We got to the letter "O" and he then asked us what letter came next. Jeron blurted out "P." He then replied "I did not!" We had a good laugh. I think my most tender memory happened on my wedding day. Grandpa couldn't be there because he had just suffered from a fall a few weeks before. He was so worried that he couldn't make it to the wedding. Grandpa always took a liking to the in-laws and my husband, Jared, was included. Since he liked my grandpa as well, we agreed to take a quick trip to see him in between the lunch and the reception. We were met with so much gratitude and emotion that had never been expressed to me before. He was in tears that he couldn't make it and I was in tears that he would show that kind of love and concern for me. I always new grandpa loved me, he just showed it in different ways. He was at every important event that I can think of, from my baby blessing, recitals, my baptism, and graduation. I would have loved to have him at my wedding, but I think that I will cherish the memory of that visit far more. (Funny side note, I attended my cousin Jesse's wedding a few months later and Grandma came and whispered in my ear that Grandpa wanted to be fair and therefore, he didn't want to go to Jesse's wedding either. I was kind of mad, but then saw Grandma giggling. He had fallen shortly before that and was in the hospital.)