For our dad’s celebration of life my sisters and I created a brochure for people. In it was a story from each of us. This was mine:
My dad loved being a grandfather to his four granddaughters and one grandson, he tried his best to spend as much time as possible with them and over his last few years he made that known to all of us. He traveled to Nevada to see Shannon, Donna and Areil whenever he could; Sara and I were very lucky to have my mom and him close.
My dad always made a concerted effort to get Avery over to their house on Fridays to spend the night. It was a ritual for the last few years. Avery loved these times, not only did she get spoiled by eating chocolate cake with grandpa, my dad would surprise her by taking her to see that one movie I would never take her to see — the same movie Avery would rave about but I would cringe thinking of spending 90 minutes watching.
Over the last few months my parents were also able to watch Sawyer while Sara and I were busy, it didn’t take me long to realize watching Sawyer wasn’t inconveniencing them, it was my dad’s pleasure to watch his very loud little grandson.
Just four days before our dad passing he spent another day being a great father and grandpa. My mom and him supported Avery at her firstsoccer game, cheering and making sure Avery was hydrated on that blistering hot day. That same afternoon you could see my dad holding his grandson throughout the day at Sawyer’s first birthday party at the park and helping shove cake in his grandson’s face.
Some say my son looks just like me, that might be true but on the same afternoon when I saw my dad pushing Sawyer on the swing they both shared the same ear-to-ear smile.
Love, Daniel
It’s really been a tough few weeks but only the last few days has it been the most difficult.
