I will miss you!

 Dear Grandpa,

I feel so confused as I sit to write down some of my thoughts and feelings about you today!  This morning I received a very early phone call from my mom and she told me of your passing!    My first thought was disbelief and my second thought was for my children.  I am heartbroken, simply because they are so young and I want them to have vivid memories of you, like I have.  I guess you surprised me,  I knew you were tired and weak but I sure didn't think you would go today.   I guess my initial reaction today was that life is sometimes unfair.  Unfair in the fact that I didn't get to talk to you one more time or sit at your table and beat you in a game of Casino or Burney!  I am so thankful I got to see you last month and oh how I wish my kids were with me on that visit.  But no worries, I have plenty of stories about you to fill their little minds with memories they will never forget!  You know not every grandpa gives hiking lessons in the back yard and teaches you how to chew wheat until it becomes gum!  Not every grandpa could compete with the nominees running for president and give them a run for their money in a debate that would be persuasive, logical and heated at the same time.  I can't believe you would pass away before this election is over.  I can now say that you might even roll over in your grave if ole' Mitt "the mormon" gets elected as the republican nominee for president.  

Grandpa, so many of my memories with you are about learning, you always taught and you always were such an example of hard work!  I am going to miss the smell of your coffee in the morning when I go to visit.  I am going to miss your mountainous bowl of oatmeal with raisins that you ate much later in the morning as the years went by.   I am going to miss sitting out on the porch and watching the deer come in with you.   Remember all those times when you told me stories about when you were a "little girl", remember how many stories you told me and how it took me a good 30 years to start catching on that you were probably making up yet another story!  

Most of my memories with you are not out of the ordinary most of them are of sitting around a kitchen table just playing cards and talking.  I know you loved it when some of those talks became a little heated or we pulled out the encyclopedia or atlas just so we could learn something.  I am going to miss those very ordinary moments the most.  I am going to miss going into your house and seeing you snoozing on the recliner with the TV blaring so loudly!   I am going to miss your memory, you remembered everything I ever told you about my kiddos and even remembered all of my friends.  You and grandma always provided a home for me and my friends whenever we needed a trip to the big city.  I guess tomorrow you will not be reading the obituaries first,  I always thought it was funny when you said you checked them first to see if you were in it.  I am so sad that your funny joke is now our new reality!   I love you  grandpa, the good and the bad and I am dying to know what you think about Heaven......hopefully Jake was there to meet you when you entered, please give him a huge hug for me and tell him to give you one back for me as well.   

 I will miss you forever!

So many pictures I have are of this old porch, I am so thankful that I spent hours on it with you just talking!

Let's not forget that if there was talking on the porch there was also eating.  The porch, eating, talking and cousins what a perfect combination!  I never once saw grandpa turn down a bowl of ice cream and if you put a cookie on the side he was your friend for life.  Thanks for so many shared  ice cream moments!

Grandpa and Grandma's house served as a refuge for me many times.  It is where my family gathered when my Jake was blessed and it is the place where I brought home Braden and little Layla to stay before we headed home.  Grandpa welcomed each new addition with open arms and true happiness for Rand, Jake and me!   

 Love you!