Saturday, July 16, 2011

Goodbye Grandpa

Last Friday my Grandpa Black passed away. I had been expecting the news. Still though, when I got the phone call and heard the words it felt like a punch to the stomach. Luckily I was able to go visit him 2 weeks ago. I heard he had been admitted to the hospital and things were not looking good. I felt very strongly that if I wanted to see him one more time in this life, NOW was the time. So even though we were leaving for a family wedding in a couple of days, I packed up, took J.J., and the two of us left for Utah that very same day. We had some adventures along the way that I'll blog about another time but we made it to Utah in one piece and were able to spend a couple of hours with Grandpa and some other family members. It was a great visit and I'm SO glad we were able to make it!

Here's me, J.J., and my Grandpa:
Grandma Susan was ordering Grandpa's dinner so we had to take another picture with her in it! I love her so much. I've been thinking about her a lot this last week, the two of them were always together. They were such a great team and supported each other so well. I love this article about them.


Today is my Grandpa's funeral and I was not able to attend. I had decided early on that if I could make a trip to Utah I'd rather make it to visit him, not to attend his funeral. And I later heard that he had made the comment, "I'd rather be seen, not viewed." That makes me feel better about the fact I'm not there today! I'm posting his Obituary just for my own references.

This last week I've been looking at a lot of pictures of my Grandpa, and reading this awesome book that he and Grandma Susan wrote together a couple years ago about his life. I'm so grateful they thought to do that! My kids, especially J.J., have LOVED looking through it and learning all about him.
I thought I'd just post some pictures I found too.
1980
1998
2008
2010
I love you Grandpa! Thank you for your awesome example to me and I will see you again someday!

3 comments:

just call me jo said...

What a sweet man! Why is it that many LDS people look familiar to me even though I've never met them? I think I met them in the pre-existence probably. ;o) Maybe your family and mine were blogger friends before we came here. I'm sorry for your loss of a good man. But you will see him again. That's the beauty of our Church.

Terina said...

So sorry for you loss! He sounds like a great man!

Holly said...

I'm so glad you were able to go and spend that time with your grandpa. Thank heavens for the gospel and sealing ordinances! Love you lady and you and your family are in our prayers!