Saying Goodbye

In Memory of Floyd Donald "PapPap" July23, 1933- June 27th, 2008

Last weekend Marc was working at our house that we are selling when he got a call that his Grandfather (PapPap) had passed away. PapPap had been sick for some time with cancer and he was finally called home to be with our Father on Friday June 27th, 2008. I got the ok from my OBGYN and we drove to West Virginia Monday night. It was late so we stayed at a hotel.
This is Kyle being the ever-helpful boy that he is............

Tuesday morning we headed over to Marc's Dad's house to visit and get ready for the funeral. Beside the front porch his mother-in-law has the most beautiful hydrangea bush so I snapped a bunch of pictures of the blooms...........still kissed with the morning dew................

It was a hard day. For the last few weeks Marc has been trying to get down to see his PapPap but between his responsibilities at work and a major plumbing issue we had to take care of last weekend he never made it down. He never got to say his proper goodbye and he was hurting because of it. The service was beautiful and there was a large number of people in attendance. The sermon was lovely and the music was beautiful. One of Marc's cousins even played the guitar and sang one of PapPap's favorite songs. It was very touching and I don't think there was a dry eye in the room. My Grandmother once told me that it takes a real man to cry in the presence of others and I witnessed the most beautiful display of that on Tuesday. PapPap was a very loved man and I am sure he was smiling down on his wonderful family as he watched them all tell him goodbye.

On the way to the graveside service Bella had fallen asleep. She only slept an hour the entire night before at the hotel so I decided to stay in the van with her. Kyle insisted on going with Marc. This was Kyle's first funeral so we tried as best we could to prepare him beforehand, answer all of his questions and try and make it as pleasant an experience as it could be so that he learns that death is not a scary thing. I think he understood because at the funeral home when we walked up to the casket he said "PapPap is sleeping so he can go be with the angels."

When the graveside service was over Marc and Kyle were walking back to the van and Kyle asked "Daddy.......are you sad that you lost your PapPap?" Marc said "Yeah Buddy I am." And Kyle replied "It's okay Daddy, we'll find him again someday." Marc said he didn't even know how to answer so he just shook his head and told Kyle that would be great.

On the way to the funeral dinner Marc needed some time so he drove me by his old High School and told me all about the school, the teachers and some of his memories there.

On the way to his Grandmother's house for the funeral dinner I watched out the window at the beautiful sky and remarked on how beautiful of a day it was. The sun was bright and warm on your skin.................

The clouds were as white and as fluffy as they could possibly be................

Every where you looked you could see the sun streaming through. It was as if God's grace was shining down upon us, wrapping His love around us and letting us know that PapPap was with Him, he was no longer suffering from earthly pain and that everything was going to be okay.
It was a very peaceful, calming feeling. The feeling you get when you can just close your eyes and feel God's love surround you.

After the funeral dinner we drove to Marc's aunt's house. On the way we saw this house and Marc said "An old farmhouse for Rue! Take a picture!"

Here we played in the yard with all of the kids, talked to and pet the neighbor's horse, and had a nice relaxing visit with the family.

We ate dinner and played some more in the yard. They tried wearing the kids out with relay races involving spoons and eggs, matchbox cars, etc. It was really fun to watch. And afterwards they were exhausted.........

No, Kyle isn't sleeping. In fact he only laid here just long enough for me to grab the camera and snap this shot and he was off and running again.

After a long day we said our sad goodbyes to the family and got in the van to head home. The kids fell asleep before we made it to the end of the road- maybe a quarter of a mile- and slept all the way home. Praise God! We got home after midnight and put the kids right in bed. After that Marc and I talked a little about the day. He really opened up and for that I was grateful. Marc tends to keep his emotions inside because that is the way he was raised. He explained to me how hard it was to say goodbye to his PapPap, for all the normal reasons but also some that I had never given any thought to. He stated that there were four generations and today there is only three. It makes you realize that you are growing up, getting older and life is really moving forward. Life is not full of promises, we have no guarantees of what tomorrow will hold for us. We need to Praise God and be Thankful to be in the here and now. We need to take each day for what it is and make the most of it, but also make the most of ourselves so that we never have to look back in regret.
Goodbye PapPap. We love you and miss you but we'll see (find) you again someday!

-Heather

The Sewing Lesson

From a very young age I wanted to "do it all". I could go from girly girl to tomboy in two seconds flat. I would sew and do crafts with my mother, hit yard sales to add to my china and doily collection, spend countless hours with my Grandfather in his garage working on cars and be elbow deep in the latest remodeling project or plumbing repair with my father. I loved it! At the time it was all just fun and games but as I got older I realized just how valuable these lessons were. I had a flooded bathroom in my first home and I was able to diagnose the problem, fix the supply line and clean up the mess. The alternator went out on my car- I replaced it myself. I love to paint and sew and never have to ask for help. Although sometimes I do, but that is more out of laziness than lack of knowledge. I remember my husband joking with me saying that one of the reasons he fell in love with me was because I came with my own set of power tools!!
It was very important when I started having children to teach them as much as I could. I didn't want to stick to the typical gender "standards" as were set in place moons ago. I want to teach my daughter how to use power tools and change her flat tires. I want to teach my son how to cook, do laundry and...............sew. I want my children to grow up very independent and not have to rely on other people more than they need to.
Today Bella was sleeping and I wanted to get my pillows done for the living room- finally. So I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to give Kyle his first sewing lesson. It actually went better than I had expected. Kyle asked a lot of questions and I did my best to answer everything in words he could comprehend. He is fascinated with anything electrical so the sewing machine definitely held his interest! He wanted to know how every button and gear worked.
I sat the sewing machine on the floor so that Kyle could see and reach everything comfortably. Not so comfy for mommy but it worked!

This is Kyle now telling me how the needle works! Apparently he was paying attention!

Uh, yeah................ I think he has the hang of it now!

The finished project! Even though I could have had 20 pillows done in the time it took to make just this one- it was time well spent! The pillow has it's imperfections but to me it is perfect!

I'm not sure who is more proud of this pillow- Kyle or Mommy!

Say "cheese" Bug! Mommy is so proud of her little man!

Well, I am off to do more sewing. Hmmmmm, he is such a great helper maybe I can get him to help me paint the bedroom later...........

~Heather :)