Grandfather Passes Away

On September 5 a day shy of his 90th Birthday my Grandfather passed away. He has always been such a wonderful example to me of someone who lives his life for service and always strives to be Christ like in all that he did. He will be greatly missed but I know he is happy and is no longer in pain. I loved him so much! All eight of his children spoke at the funeral and I realized how many lives he had touched. I had to give a talk using Elder Holland's Conference talk The Ministry of Angels and this is part of it that talked about my Grandpa: Elder Holland describes these angels as “ Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind.” As I read this statement I thought about my grandfather who passed away this September a day shy of his 90th birthday. I always knew what a great man he was but I realized what an angelic person he was as each of his 8 children spoke about him during the funeral. They all told stories of his life on earth that seemed to have the same theme. He was always finding ways to serve other people. One example that was shared stuck out in my head was every morning during the cold months before his widowed neighbor woke up he would go stack wood up by her back porch so that she wouldn’t have to cut the wood herself but still be able to have a fire to warm her house. My uncle went with him a few times and never understood why he had to go early and keep it a secret from her. On one fast Sunday this sister was baring her testimony and thanked this angel, as she called him, for always making sure she had wood and how much this blessed her life and made things much easier on her. My uncle leaned over to my grandpa and asked why he didn’t just tell her it was him and he responded with,” it is not important who does it what is important is that its getting done and that I am helping other people.” What a great example of an angelic person acting for the Lord. At the end of his life after all those year and being an angel to others, he received an angel in his last days. He was very sick and had been brought home from the hospital until he passed. He was in so much pain that he had to be sedated all day and night for about 4 days. My grandma was heartbroken and didn’t want to see him in pain anymore, so she decided to be his angel and ask my uncle to give him a blessing to be released from this life and all of the pain he was in. So on Thursday all of his children gathered together to give and listen to this pray and all the grandchildren and great grandchildren prayed and fasted for him as well. Through those angels in my grandpa’s life on Friday morning he was able to leave his earthy life of serving as an angel to so many others to being able to continue serving as an angel on the other side of the veil.

A couple days before he died he asked to have the Bishop come over and give him a temple recommend interview so that it would be current when he died. He was always a very faithful member of the church.
Here are the pictures of all the sons and son-in-laws and my brother Brent standing in for my Dad carrying the casket to the grave site. My Grandpa always wanted to be buried on the Arizona Strip where he grew up but since that wasn't possible due to quite a few reasons my Aunt went out to the Strip and collected dirt. Anyone who wanted could sprinkle the dirt under his grave so that he could be layed to rest on the dirt from the strip. Here is a picture of my Grandma putting the first bit of dirt under his casket and the second picture is of me taking my turn.

My Grandma went back after lunch when the casket had been lowered. She was so strong during everything and is just glad that he is no longer in so much pain. This is most of my Mom's brothers and sister who also went back to the grave site to be with my Grandma. I will miss him greatly but I have so many memories that will remain with me forever. He always gave our family the same advice: Listen to the Prophet, live the commandments and get out of debt. I will try my hardest Grandpa I love you!