Grandpa

I got a phone call at 7 a.m. this morning. By the time I got down the stairs to answer it I knew that it was someone telling me my grandpa had passed away. He was 96 years old, 96! Born in 1912, a month or so after the Titanic sank. I'm grateful to my dad who had posted some pictures of him on our family blog. I wanted to show off my favorites of him on mine.

Here he is serving as an officer during WWII. This, my friends, is what "cool" is.

He was dreaming about this girl, Margiewhom he later married. They celebrated their 61st anniversary in May. After the Teton dam broke in June 1976 causing massive flooding, Grandpa found a dead man in his garden. He calmly brushed the mud off of his face and asked his sons, "Does anybody know him?" This is their home surrounded in flood water when the flood victim was being removed.
This is Rexburg in 1917 taken when he was a little boy. As a 12-year-old, he lost his father to appendicitis, leaving a wife and a pack of kids just a few years before the Depression roared in. There was an abundance of work to do at home and a shortage of food. Last night my grandpa was able to see his father whom he hadn't seen for 82 years!

As a police officer once he walked the railroad tracks picking up pieces of a man who had been hit by a train. They found all but the face which was later located stuck to the bottom of the train. A few months ago a local news channel wanted to do a story on him. He declined, saying he wasn't interesting enough.

More than anything else, I'll remember Grandpa's sense of humor. He was always telling funny stories and saying the funniest phrases. He liked to say that he loved "having a roll in bed with honey." I think that funny gene was his legacy, as it trickled down into his children and grandchildren. That Shirley sense of humor we have now was either learned through him, or inherited from him. Either way it's here to stay

so he'll always be here.