My GRAND Daddy

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my grandpa who passed away in May. The reason for my title of this post was whenever I would see him he would poke fun at my dad saying my dad was just my dad but that he was my GRAND dad. With all the thinking and crying I’ve done lately about him I thought a good way to deal with my feelings would be to write them all out. So here are the 10 things I loved most about him. They are in no particular order because I could never pick what trait I loved most about him.

1. He loved to read. I remember whenever I would go to visit him we would get in and my grandma would be on the couch asleep with the T.V. on and my grandpa on the couch with the lamp on reading a book. He read through his local library and had to start ordering books. Even after his second to last stroke when he was unable to read he started ordering books on tape. Because of this love he has helped me love reading which has helped me succeed in school. I will be forever grateful for this.

(His Favorite book)

2. His great Endurance. My grandpa had every reason to give up. When he was about 14 months old he was in a terrible fire and spent most of his young life in and out of hospitals. He was teased about his looks and had a hard time dealing with other kids but with his great endurance he got through it.

3. His love for animals and children. My grandpa had one of the most loving spirits about him. Kids would just come to him. One man was astounded when he saw George surrounded by children and some sitting in his lap “Are all these kids your
Grandchildren?!” my grandpa answered him that no - he had never seen any of them
before.

4. His great love of the Savior. God always came first in his
life. He often said “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” and he always
encouraged us to have God as our friend even if our choices in life were
unpopular with others He taught us to love learning and always seek the truth. He told us
that as a young man working on the railroad that he was pretty tough and
could cuss as good as any of them but every night he was drawn to read
the Bible and each weekend he attended a new church. One time some
girls invited him to a square dance at the LDS church and he enjoyed
himself. He decided to attend church on Sunday and felt something
different. He said that even though it was a little noisy with the babies
crying that he could still feel a strong spirit there. He decided to
investigate and got hold of as much literature as he could. The spirit that
he felt grew within him until he knew that he had found the truth that the
Bible talked about. The day that he was baptized a member of the Church
of Jesus Christ he considered his new birthday.

5. He had one saying that he as long as I can remember stuck to “Life Short Eat Dessert First” I can still remember the many times he would sneak into the freezer and pull out the carton of cherry ice cream and dish us up a bowl right before dinner.

6. His joy in gardening. He often told us that his name “George”
meant ‘man of the earth or man of the soil’. He also became known as
the “Hollyhocks man”. Total strangers would stop to admire his variety of
hollyhocks and stay to talk for an hour or so. I always remember him having his HUGE flower bead of hollyhocks in the front of his house they were truly beautiful.

7. His sense of humor. Our family always teased him about being “sarcastic”. But he informed us that the dictionary definition of sarcasm was ‘with the intent to hurt’ - so the correct term for him would be “jovial”. His sister told my family that he was always a big tease - but he was never hurtful or mean. His teasing was gentle and never embarrassed her.

8. His patience. He was always a very patient man and hardly ever lost his temper I can only remember him ever losing his temper once when I was living with him and he didn’t completely loose it. I hope one day that I will be as patient as he was.

9. This next thing was not necessarily a thing I loved about him but it was a memorable thing. He HATED getting his picture taken. He never let us take his picture except for the one time when my dad made him sit down with us girls and take a picture although he didn’t do it willingly he still did it. I wish that I could have gotten more pictures of him to remember him by but I guess ill just have to keep a picture of him in my heart.

10. The last one on my list would be all of the late night stories he would tell me. I remember laying on the hide a bed with him and asking him to tell me a story before I went to sleep. He asked me what story I wanted him to tell I would ask him to tell me about when he was younger. He would tell me “Oh you don’t want to hear about that again!” I would tell him of course I do and he would finally give in. although his stories were meant to help me fall asleep I would be to interested in his story and end up staying awake for the whole thing.

Although I could keep going on and on about the things I love about my grandpa I will stop there. Even though I don’t like the fact that my grandpa is gone I know he is in a better place and will be waiting for me in heaven one day. I love you grandpa!