A Sad Post

As we were coming off of our long, belly-filling Thanksgiving break, we were hit with just how fragile life is. I got the phone call early Monday morning that my Papaw Garrett passed away. I couldn't feel anything for about 20 or 30 minutes. I called Carl, got the kids ready, jumped in the shower and then left within an hour of that call. Papaw had been having chest pains since Saturday and their religion doesn't believe in going to doctors.  I'm not sure anyone really thought that Thanksgiving would be the last holiday we would spend with him. As the kids and I pulled up at his house they were loading his body in the car. The funeral director cried because he knew Papaw well. The funeral was held on Wednesday morning. As I sat on the front row of that church next to my (step) grandmother, my parents, and Carl and the kids, I felt that great loss. He was a good man. Honest and blunt, but also kind and loving. My kids were very sad also. They knew he loved them and they him. My earliest memory just happens to be me staying with him and my grandma Martha when my sister was born. I was three and they fed me ice cream :) My kids will always remember eating ice cream at Papaw's as well.
I am happy that he raised my dad the way he did, and that my dad raised me the same way. I hope that I will be able to instill the same "ways" in my children as well.
So today I am thankful. Thankful for the words I heard others say about him at his funeral, thankful for all of the memories of the good times we had with him, and most of all, I am thankful that I got to spend that last Thanksgiving with him.
We love you Papaw!

Until we meet again,
Beth