Celebration of Life

This afternoon, my Granddad's life ended.  Since I found out, I have experienced a range of emotions: sadness, relief that he is no longer suffering, and really still not fully grasping that he is no longer with us.  I could give the details of the last week and a half that he spent in the hospital, but I would much rather reflect on some of my memories of him that make me smile.

His nickname for me was Tommy.  My parents were expecting me to be a boy until I was born and surprise!  He always gave me a hard time about it and would call me Tommy.  I always claimed to hate it, but I remember being sad when I got older and he stopped calling me that.

He loved playing on his computer.  For a while he helped with his church's webpage, and he always managed to somehow mess something up on the computer.  My sister would be the one he would call to fix it, but would fuss at her the whole time she did it.  It was always something that we would laugh about. 

He could never hear what anyone said, and he would never wear his hearing aids.  So that always made holiday dinner conversations interesting.  He would try to participate, but usually his responses had nothing to do with the topic being discussed.  His hearing only got worse, and eventually he would just nod at anything that was said to him, whether he really understood you or not.

Granddad lived a very full life of 90 years.  I always loved that my birthday was the day after his, and growing up we used to celebrate them together.  He and my Grannie were married for 68 years, which really is unheard of these days.  He loved his wife, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.  He loved God and his church.  He was a hard worker, and I will always admire his dedication to life.

Granddad, you loved and were loved.  We will miss you, but we know that you are in a better place and no longer suffering.  As a Christian, that is all we can hope for.

Kaylee with both her Granddad's at the hospital.