For a Very Special Man

This month, my grandfather went home to be with his heavenly Father.

I'll be honest... I don't really know what to say.  I loved my grandpa very much.  I have many memories of him.  He enjoyed working in the soil... he was a farmer through and through.  I stayed over at their house for 3 weeks one time, and I got to spend a lot of time with him and grandma.  I remember his pipe... his jokes... him playing bidwist with whomever wanted to have a game... the long ashes on his cigarette.  He roasted mini marshmallows over his ash tray with me and my brother once.  Made a 'mini' fire with toothpicks and paper and lit it.  Mini marshmallows on toothpicks.  A mini campout at the dining room table in my grandparents house.

I remember his laugh.  That has got to be one of the best things about my grandpa.  He always had a smile or a laugh to share.  It didn't matter how bad things looked, there was always something to joke about.  I remember him taking us around the farm.  I didn't spend as much time with grandpa as the boys did, as grandpa always took the boys out to make them work... do a 'man's job'.  Put hairs on your chest... that sort of thing.  But I always knew he loved us girls, too.  He was never a man for hugs, but he'd give me one anyway (and as a child, I was a hugger).  He was a farmer, a trucker, and he always had interesting stories to share.  I loved listening to him and dad tell stories about things that happened while trucking, people they'd meet and that sort of thing.  And all the farming stories... the things they did way back when.  I wish I could have compiled it all into a book to share with my kids.  Grandpa was a hard worker.  I don't think any of this generation in this country really knows how to work as hard as my grandfather did.

And now he's home!  He can see his son again.  I imagine they're having a great time right now.  One day, we will join him there.

I wonder if they have farms and old fixer-upper Case tractors up in heaven... if they do, I can tell you that's where my grandpa would be.  :)

I love you, Grandpa!