So...

I haven't been able to do this, it's been hard. My grandpa passed away on Saturday morning in his sleep. He turned 89 in August and had heart failure. We visited a little more than a week before he passed, I was glad to have been able to visit with him. He was in bed the entire time and I could tell he was in pain but he laid on his side and watched Zach play cars on the floor. I could tell he enjoyed watching him, maybe remember his son and grandsons playing cars too? Who knows? I made sure we all gave kisses and told him that we loved him knowing it would most likely be the last time we saw him. I loved my papa so much, he was a really big part of my life. My parents always made family very important and we always showed much love and respect to our grandparents. My grandparents were about 45 minutes away so we visited often.

I have been thinking about some of my favorite memories of papa, here are some of many:

-Big red gum, he always had pieces of big red in his big red truck. His entire truck smelled like cinnamon!

-pepper, he put TONS of pepper on everything! I remember him putting it on cantaloupe!

-Trash, I remember him walking along Pismo beach and picking up trash.

-Worthless, his dogs were worthless. Even with the nickel that their dog Jasper swallowed he was still worthless. He even had a spray bottle that said "worthless spray" haha!

-Nickels, he would always say that he would leave a nickel for this or that, if he used the bathroom he would say that he left a nickel.

-Initials, if you bring over your new car to show Papa he will give his approval and then he would say that he was going to carve his initials in it somewhere! I remember when I got my very first car I really thought he was going to do it!

-Dr. Pepper, he loved Dr. Pepper!

-Corney corn bread, he put corn in corn bread!

-Sanfrans, if something was wrong it was always the sanfrans! (a made up name)

-Soft shoulder, every time we would see the soft shoulder road sign he would feel my grandma's shoulder and say "yep, Fran sure does"! What does soft shoulder mean anyway?

-Maroon jumpsuits, he loved the color maroon and wore jumpsuits around the house all the time.

-Texas A&M, he was a huge fan!

There are so many more things about my Papa that I will miss, but my mom gave me this Christmas ornament that says "the best gift we can give to our children are memories" so true! I have so many memories of my papa and I am truly grateful for each one of them.

I love you papa,




Papa and Emily, the best dog ever! In July 2008.