Grandpa's Last Sweet Ride

My grandpa passed away Tuesday March 10, 2009 at age 78. He had been dealing with various health issues for the last couple years. My grandma, mom, all of his other children, and a very close cousin were with him when he passed away. It's been a pretty emotional thing for me to go through but mostly I am just glad that he isn't suffering anymore and I know that he is in a better place.

I am most grateful for the opportunity I had to go down to St George with my parents and little brother and sister the Saturday and Sunday before he passed away to spend a little more time with him in the care center he was in. My aunts and uncles and some of my cousins were down there as well so it was a really great to be around so much family. We didn't get there until about 10:00 PM on Saturday night, but when we got there he was able to give us each a hug. It was really hard to see him so weak. He didn't have much of a voice but it meant a lot to hear him say my name and tell me that he loved me. I got to sit and hold his hand for quite awhile while the family sat and talked and that really meant a lot to me too. At about 1 AM my grandma and all my aunts and uncles went into another room to talk about some things. So I was alone with my grandpa until around 3 when they came back in. He had been given medecine to help him sleep so he was just peacefully sleeping. But I am so happy that I got that time with him. That was definitely a blessing and a special time I will never forget.

His funeral was Monday March 16. It went really well. The coolest part was that instead of using a herse, they moved him from the church to the Salt Lake cemetary in the back of a 1932 truck that apparently looked like a truck he had once had. We also got a please escort. I am sure that all the people that had to stop and wait for our procession thought that someone famous had died. It was really neat to send him off like that. At the cemetary there were a group of veterans that had a pretty sweet presentation thing for him. So overall it was all pretty neat I thought.
(Thanks to Nick and Kimberly for the next few pics! I was gonna have you email me some but I just took these off your blog. So sorry to you all who have to see them again)

I really like this picture of Nick and Grandpa. It was over Easter weekend last year when we were visiting Grandpa in the hospital. This was really when things started going downhill. But I just think this is an awesome picture.

So the other night I had a minor meltdown because I was thinking about it and I didn't think I had a single picture of me with Grandpa. I was pretty upset. I looked through all the pictures that I have up here in Logan and couldn't find a single one. So I had my mom send me up a book of picture cds in hopes that I would find one. So I spent a couple hours last night looking and so far this is what I found. I just about cried when I found it. As you can see in this picture and the one at the top that my 14 year old self apparently wasn't thinking that I should try and not look like a goof when they took this picture. I guess I had no idea that in 6 years I would be really wanting a picture of me with my grandpa. But regardless of how goofy I look I still love these pictures. I am hoping I might find more, but at least I found my picture with Grandpa!!

I miss you Grandpa and I love you!