Great Grandpa

Great Grandpa died on Sunday, November 14, 2010.  We were all blessed by his presence for so many years.  He was very optimistic, and always looked forward to family gatherings and events with great enthusiasm.  He loved going to summer mini-reunions at Lake Easton (a good in between location for the Washington State family, although my mom always noted that it was a little bit closer for the Seattle relatives...). 

Great Grandpa stayed fully engaged in life.  He worked until his fingers could no longer work.  He read books and discussed new ideas up until he lost the ability to speak, about two days before he died.  When we last visited him in August of 2010, he was keeping Grandma up all night on occasion talking about all sorts of things!  Great Grandpa enjoyed art, photography, music, science.... He was a real Renaissance Man!

I thought I'd share some pictures of Grandpa from the last decade or so. 
The first pictures in my digital library are from Grandma and Grandpa's 60th wedding celebration.  They had some balloons and cake during a church dinner.  The twins were babies then, almost 9 months.

Clearly the twins were fascinated by balloons!  And of course they had never played with them before.  Latex helium filled balloons are not recommended for babies.  

If you look closely at the table, you'll notice that Grandpa and Grandma got a Gund teddy bear to help commemorate their anniversary.  Grandpa decided to start collecting Gund teddy bears around this time.  The kids love that collection!  I don't think Grandpa intended his bears to become stuffed toys, but that's pretty much what has happened...

In the spring of 2004, Grandpa became quite ill and needed surgery.  I was very pregnant with Luke at the time.  This is a picture of him after the surgery.  He came through with great success!  "V" is for "Victory" here, people!!!  Although I think Grandpa was all for World Peace, too.

In this picture, Great Grandpa is getting to know Luke, who was born about 6 weeks before this photo was taken.  Luke was born in Maryland, so Grandpa and Grandma had to wait to hold him! This visit was only about 2 months after Grandpa's big surgery.  He really recovered quite well!  

Here are Grandma and Grandpa at a family dinner of some sort.  It was probably a birthday party for the twins. 

The following are some pictures from the Lake Easton family gathering in 2004.  Our family wasn't always able to be there, but until Grandma and Grandpa were no longer physically able, the Lake Easton picnic to celebrate Grandpa's birthday (June 30) was always a Main Event of the year.

Later on during that same summer visit of 2004, Grandpa showed off his relatively new car.  I can't remember if the Honda Element was brand new at that point, but it probably was.  It was hard for Grandpa to buy that car, because before then he had been driving a stick shift.  He felt that stick shifts were really "the only way to go."  But, his Boston style Birkenstocks kept getting stuck on the pedals in his stick shift, so for safety of all others, he decided to switch to an automatic...

Off they go!

The next pictures are from the winter of 2006.  We visited during the Christmas break.  Isabel usually spends a lot of time over in the Great Grandparent wing of the house.  It's warm over there!  And quiet...  until Isabel's brothers come over!

Grandpa was still working as much as he could in the little office/workspace built by the garage of their new home.  This year he was working mostly with fire opals- triplets. 

Grandma and Grandpa open their Christmas presents.

We tried to visit every year at least two times.  Some years we were able to visit three times.  But as our family has grown, and as the kids have become busier with their activities and sports, it's been harder and harder to visit as often as we'd like. 

These next pictures are from 2008, when Josie was a newborn.  We visited for Christmas.

We visited again during the summer of 2009.  Great Grandpa couldn't make the Lake Easton trip this year, so we had a big family gathering for Grandpa's birthday in his house. 

In 2010, we visited again in the summer.  Great Grandpa was getting fragile, but he still looked wonderful!  And of course he maintained a great zest for life! 



After the visit during the summer of 2010, we didn't see Grandpa again.  We went to the wonderful memorial service and burial in November.  The kids and I stayed for Thanksgiving with Grandma and my family, including Nate and Kristina, Teddy, Mom and Dad, Julie and Pablo and Grace and Guy.  We had Thanksgiving at Ghormley.  It was a great visit.

Here are some pictures of Grandpa's casket.  His burial plot is in a lovely spot overlooking several hills and the valley.    It was a cold day when he was buried, and soon after the burial it started to snow.  The snow did not stop much during the following week while we were visiting. 

In spite of the marvel of how wondrous it is that Grandpa continues on in Life in Heaven, we are of course sad at his loss.  We miss him, and we will continue to miss him through the rest of our days here on earth.