Goodbye Grandpa Andy

The week of the VT shooting, Andy's paternal grandpa died. He died just shy of 95. On our road trip last summer, Andy and I stayed in Mountain Home, Arkansas to visit with Grandpa Andy and his wife Betty. We had a great time with them and got to hear many wonderful and funny stories of his life......Hitchhiking his way to places for jobs during the depression, meeting his first wife who was a devout Catholic (even though he was raised devout Lutheran) raising Andy's Dad, fishing and hunting with friends and then stories of living in Arkansas. He and Betty had moved down there from Iowa years earlier and had enjoyed a good life together. When we visited them in Mt. Home, they were living in the same nursing home, just a hallway part. Betty passed on about 3 weeks before Grandpa Andy did. When both Andy and I heard she had died, we knew he would leave us soon. They were very much like the couple in The Notebook. Grandpa Andy left behind a wonderful extended family and heritage. Although the funeral was sad, it was wonderful to be able to share stories and memories of times with him. It was also special for me because I got to meet a lot of Andy's Dad's side of the family that didn't make it to the wedding.

It has been hard on my heart to have so much death in such a short amount of time. But we were thankful that unlike at VT, he had filled a full life and did not die in much pain. It has made us talk a lot about death and what we would want in the end. In one week I lost people who seemed to have their whole lives in front of them and someone who had lived a "whole lifetime". Would you be happy with the life you left behind if you died today? What would you change if you knew you would die at 19, 25, 33, 42, or 95? Do you put God off because you think you have time? Do you ever think about your funeral and what you would want?