memories of grandpa

My parents informed us that there would be a point of my grandpa's funeral that people would have a chance to say something about him. I wanted to do this. But I didn't think I could. I dreaded it, not knowing if I'd hold it together or not. But we did. My sister and I did it together.

Here's what we read...

Many of you know the side of our grandpa that displayed his servant’s heart, his heart for his church, his heart for missions, and his heart for people.
So rather than telling you more of what you saw him live out everyday of his life, we wanted to share some things that only WE would know. His grandchildren.

First of all, we were always sure of one thing when we got to visit Grandma and Grandpa…grandpa would let us do anything we wanted, he would NEVER say no, and we’d be 100% spoiled.

*We’d ask to go to Braums, no begging necessary. We just had to ask once, and grandpa said yes. But we didn’t go to Braums for just normal kid sized cones…Grandpa introduced us to double dip ice cream cones!

*He loved taking us to the park and zoo to ride the twisty slide, the carousel, to run in the hamster wheel and to go see Lois the elephant.

*Grandpa always let us win at Checkers and Chinese Checkers every time, even when we were old enough to realize what he was doing and thinking he was silly for not making the winning move that was completely obvious!

*Grandpa always carved the turkey, no matter who’s house we were at for Thanksgiving,

*He always took bites from the cookies and drank the milk that we left out for Santa, again…even after we were old enough that we KNEW it was him, we just played along and pretended we thought it was really him. I’m not sure which was more detrimental…the year WE found out there was no Santa, or the year that Grandpa found out that we knew there was no Santa.

*He loved music and he invested so much in our musical abilities. He drove all the way to Winfield to pick us up and drive us back to Independence for private lessons on the organ and violin. He videotaped every lesson and watched them back over and over again.

*He never complained when we hit that “cool teenage” stage and refused to listen to his music in the car, and insisted on taking over his radio and switching it to what WE wanted to listen to!

*If we were visiting on a Sunday, he’d always leave the choir to come down and sit with us during church. We would wait anxiously while the choir performed and would get so excited when we’d finally see him step out and come down.

*We remember coming to the church when Grandpa did the custodial work….we had fun following him around, riding in the elevator, hiding from him and going all the way up into the dome.

*If we wanted extra sugar on our already sugared cereal, he’d help us spoon it on.

*We looked forward to coming to Neewolah every year, and getting the best seats EVER for the parade..because our grandpa was the one who got up at the crack of dawn and went down to set chairs out to save our spots.


We could go on and on. Our grandpa loved us, invested in us, and spoiled us beyond belief. We will miss him, but we can rejoice as we know that he now, after almost 86 years, finally has LIFE…the only life that really matters, and the life that he lived for every day…eternal life with his heavenly father.

June 2007 in California for my sister's wedding. My grandpa's final of MANY MANY trips around the United States and world.