Grandma and Grandpa Young

November 2006

Yesterday was my Grandpa's funeral. I think that the hardest part aside from just plain missing him was seeing my Grandma and how sad she was. I can't image losing Shawn after only 3 years, let alone 28 years. I need to renew my efforts to call her more often and let her know how much I love her.

I am so thankful to my husband for taking me back home to be a part of this. I am thankful that he loves me enough to know that this was so important to me. I am also thankful for my awesome children who were so good throughout this quick trip. There was a lot of sitting around in the car and the funeral home and they were so good!

The funeral service was wonderful and it brought back the best memories of my Grandpa. My Gramps was a fun guy who loved to tell stories, often very colorful ones. :) He loved fly fishing and restoring old bamboo fishing rods as a hobby. The kids all had so much fun playing with him. In fact, a few years ago one of the neighbor kids came and asked if Al could play. That's the kind of man he was. In his later years he would sit by the "spinning table" he had in his basement and spin the kids around on it. As a young girl I remember him taking me snowmobiling and teaching me how to drive. The first time I took off like a shot and he was hanging onto the back yelling "slow down", I was grinning from ear to ear!

He had a great love for the Navajo people. He taught body shop at the Indian School for many years and always had great things to say about his students and fellow teachers. Ya-tah-hay was one of his favorite sayings and he always had cool "Indian" things like a peace pipe and headdress when I had to give reports at school.

My Aunt said it best, Grandpa's motto was "I love everyone, and you're next". He truly did love everyone. Hi family was a blended one. My first Grandma died when I was 8. About a year later Grandpa married Grandma Bonnie and he inherited 5 children on top of his 4 girls. He loved and accepted everyone from that union and the many others that took place in the family. It was always so touching to me that my husband and girls immediately became his grandson and great-granddaughters. There was no distinction between the "blood" relatives and those who married in.

Grandpa was a veteran of both the Marines and the Army. He was a very patriotic man and instilled this into his children and grandchildren. He currently has 2 grandsons serving in Iraq. The red cross tried valiantly to get my cousin Bill home for the funeral yesterday but it was just not to be. At the time of the service he was somewhere over Atlanta. We are sad that he wasn't able to be there.

Having been a military man, Grandpa was able to have military services at the graveside. Wow! If you have never been to one of those in person you are missing out! It was so touching to see those wonderful veterans honoring him in such a way. The presenting of the colors to my Grandmother was so unbelievably beautiful and emotional. My incredible husband Shawn, being a veteran of the Marines himself, was able to stand with the honor guard as they saluted my Grandpa. I was so proud of him then and knew that my grandpa was loving every minute of it as I am sure he was watching from Heaven. They did a 21 gun salute and played Taps and there was not a dry eye in the place. It really makes you appreciate all of the men and women who have been so courageous and self-sacrificing to serve our country! God bless America!

I just had to take the time to document the beautiful tribute that was made to this wonderful man I call Grandpa. I love him and will miss him as will everyone whose life was blessed to be touched by his love.