Yesterday, Grandpa Earl passed from this life to his eternal reward!! Grandpa was definitely a man of few words. He always thought about what he said and planned his words carefully. I don't ever remember having rambling conversations with him. (That is what we do with Grandma!) He picked his words carefully--said what he meant and meant what he said. He was a man of great character. I don't remember him every getting real mad. He took everything as it came and handled it with such grace.
He was always a great Christian example to all of us. Church was important to him. He taught us that is something that we need, something that helps us grow--not just a place to go on Sunday if we need something to do. Grandpa always lead the family in prayer when we would go to there house when we were young. Once again, that was always straight to the point, but showed us how important it was to be a praying family.
Grandpa also was an excellent example to us in our married lives. He and Grandma had been married 70 years--actually Oct. 12, 2011-would have been their 71st anniversary.
I have so many great memories of good times with both Grandpa and Grandma--we lived next door to them for many years. We could see him from our kitchen window, while he slept in the La-z-boy after a hard day at the furniture store.
I don't ever remember seeing him mow his yard in Monroe--he always paid one of us Grand kids to do it. We also had a chance to work with him at the store. We spent many days after school stuffing sale advertisements for the mail. It was truly a family business. Most times when we would tackle that project Grandma, my mom, aunt Carol would finally come and help us finish it--Grandpa would take us out for supper at the local pizza place. After supper, he would let us each pick a package of Bubble Yum to take home.
Grandpa will surely be missed. Yesterday came with mixed emotion, because as we had to say goodbye--he was saying hello to Dad and all the others that had gone before him. So our loss his heavens gain.
Good bye Grandpa, we love you and we will miss you!!!
