my last hour with grandpa

My 93 year old Grandpa passed away last week. Today was his funeral, a celebration of a great life. My last blog post included a pic of him with the playhouse that he and my dad built. Little did I know that he would pass away soon. I’m so grateful for the last hour I got to spend with him (as documented here) and that I had my camera. That day just my dad and I went to the nursing home to see him. We brought an album we had put together recently of pictures that begin when Grandma and Grandpa got married until my dad and his only sister were in college (that’s the four of them in that last pic).

While we were with him that day, Grandpa was incoherent much of the time, but while looking at the pictures he was more alert and even voiced certain things that he remembered in them. There were a couple other moments when he was pretty alert and said some things to that I’ll never forget. I wrote them down soon after our visit because they meant so much to me and I had a strong feeling that this really was the last time I’d see him. I wrote “really” because for the past ten years, our family has had so many moments when we thought it was the last time.

Grandpa had his first stroke 22 years ago and has been in a wheel chair ever since. He was a real trooper. He was strong, resilient and laughed easily with the best jovial laugh that filled his whole face. He was so generous and spoiled us. Among the many thoughtful things he did for us, he loved giving us presents on his birthday. We will miss him so much but look forward to seeing him and Grandma again.

xo