Grandpa

First of all, I considered myself blessed to have made it to 27 years old and still had 4 grandparents.  Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.  My mother's father passed away this afternoon after having a massive stroke in the wee morning hours.  Every since I was little it seemed that  3am phone calls always meant that someone had died... it's funny, it only happened a couple of times but when my dad called last night at about 3am (between Ben's feeding times) I knew that something was VERY wrong. 



My mother, father and sister were able to make it down there before he passed which I'm sure was very good for my mom.  I haven't spoken to her since finding all this out and I hope that being in the presence of her mother, sisters and brother is doing wonders for her.  I (and Ben, of course) will go to Loogootee for the wake and funeral which will be early next week. 



He was a great dancer... that's how he met grandma! :)







Things I will tell Benjamin about his great grandfather who died on the day he turned 8 weeks old:

- grandpa prayed... alot.  He had a relationship with Jesus that I feel I will only every hope to have.

- grandpa used to fish and catch 100 in a morning with his buddy Carl, then grandma would fry them up for dinner.  SOOOOOO good.

- grandpa made rosaries for those who needed them... many, many rosaries and prayed the prayer often.

- grandpa had hands that were so strong you could hardly believe it... mom says it's from his work in the gypsum mine (he worked swing shift)

- grandpa prayed for all of his kids and grandkids with extreme passion, him and grandma would get up at 5am to start their prayers for all of us, I remember joining them once when I was really little
- grandpa would talk about meeting grandma and how she had a nice figure :)
- grandpa loved to work in his garden and the yard, this past summer he could be off his oxygen for something like 6 hours at a time at the most... he used this time to get on the riding lawn mower
- grandpa loved... he just loved... with one of the biggest hearts I have ever known



A picture's worth a thousand words



There's so much more I could write but I have to stop myself at some point.  It hasn't really hit me that he's not on this earth anymore.  I'm trying to come to grips with it, going to the wake and funeral will help.  I found myself talking to him today as I might do my patron saint.  I can't be more thankful to have the confidence of my faith at a time like this.  Now we're not physically separated like we were, 6 hours of driving away.  We're a part of the body of Christ and he's present for me in a way that he couldn't be before.  I love thinking that even though he never met Ben on earth he can see him now!  I just stood there looking at Ben sleep and thinking how cute it was with his hands over his head and asked grandpa if he thought it was funny...  You can be sure that I'll be trusting my grandpa as my intercessor for years to come.