My Grandpa

This past Friday my Grandpa passed away. The funeral is today. I have lost a few other close family members in my life, but this is the first time I've had such mixed feelings about his passing. Obviously I am selfishly sad. He will be missed by so many people. He has a wife of 68 years, 5 sons, 4 daughter-in-laws, 13 grandchildren, 11 grandchildren-in-laws (one more engaged), 13 great-grandchildren with one more already on the way, and I'm sure many many more to follow. We all have so many great memories of him. I remember every day around 4 him asking where we were going to go for 'the big one' (supper), and him telling the server it was your birthday even if it wasn't so you would get a free dessert and get sung to. I remember him calling me Pamela Jean, despite the fact that my name is Pamela Lynn. He said I had so many other random nicknames that he should make one up too. I remember learning and playing sooooo many card games with him at their cottage on Spider Lake. I remember visiting my Grandparents in Florida with my brother and cousin; my Grandpa introduced us to a great frozen custard place called sweetberries. Randomly throughout the days we would hear him say 'Mmmmm, Sweetberries', as if he was still thinking about the frozen goodness...we still laugh about it to this day ;) I remember when I moved out to Seattle he told me he always loved to listen to when the Detroit Tigers played the Mariners because he could hear the trains go by in the background because there's a big station right by the stadium. I definitely remember at all of our weddings that Grandma and Grandpa alllllways won the anniversary dance (the longest married couple gets to dance the longest). What an awesome example they are to all of their Grandchildren of a life long marraige. 

For all these reasons and so many more, I am mourning the loss of my Grandpa and will miss his presence in my life. I am also, however, overjoyed that his time has come. I remember over 13 years ago My Grandpa told me he was going to go home to Jesus at the turn of the millennium. I was slightly horrified at the time thinking 'why on earth would you say that to your teenage granddaughter'?!? Clearly he was mistaken about leaving us in the year 2000 and God kept him here another 13 years. Over those 13 years he's made other similar comments about it being his time to go. I think it's just been recently that I've realized that he was never saying he was unhappy or wanted to die. What he was really saying is that he's had an awesome life and was completely happy with everything he's done and he was ready to dance on streets of gold and sit at the feet of Jesus. For that reason I am really happy for him that he has finally made it there. Also, what an awesome testimony for the rest of us! It just reminds me to live life to the fullest and spend time with the ones your love, but our end goal should be to spend eternity with our heavenly father. I love how excited my Grandpa was to do that. I love that we all have so many great memories with him and I love that we'll get to spend eternity with him and I can only hope that when I'm nearly 90 years old I'll have the same happiness with my life and eagerness for my eternal life.