Grandapa Church

I wrote a little bit about Grandpa Church's health last year.  He'd been in a retirement home since early November.  They took really good care of him there, but his health continued to decline.  I tried to visit him every week or two, and sometimes brought along my family.  It was very very hard to see him deteriorate each time.  We all knew that he wouldn't be around for very many more years.  That is one of the main reasons I am glad that we moved back to Utah last summer.  Before our move, we saw Grandma and Grandpa Church two or three times per year.  Now, we saw them at least once per month, and often more.  My daughters especially, and even Josh, will always have memories of spending time with Grandpa Church.

By the second week of January, Grandma C. said that she thought the end was near.  Grandpa wasn't eating or even getting his medicines down very well.  He had pneumonia as well.  Aunt Sue happened to have been in town for a couple of weeks, and arranged her schedule to stay a while longer.  Then, on January 16th, my mom got a call from the nursing home telling her she'd better come right away.  She happened to be at my house watching Bronson for me while Josh was getting sedated at the dentist (long, ugly story that I'll save for another post), but she was able to get a hold of my dad, who left work and swooped in to take Bronson for her.  I was home shortly thereafter, so Dad was able to join mom at the nursing home.

In the early afternoon on Wednesday, January 16th, my favorite human being in the whole world passed away.  He was surrounded by family and went very peacefully.  I am so happy for him - I'm sure he had quite a reception on the other side of the veil.  I am certain that he had his wonderfully close and large family, many war buddies, and other friends and admirers waiting for him.  He was an incredible person.  Literally magical. The only sadness in his passing is for those of us who will miss him, especially Grandma.  They had such a wonderful marriage.  I can't even imagine how she's missing him.  But I'm grateful that she had those months of transition while he was in a nursing home for two reasons.  One: she had already started to adjust to sleeping alone, going to church without him, etc. so she didn't have to face that added shock, and two: those months were so hard to watch that his passing felt a little like a relief.

That evening, my parents invited all of their children to meet them at Sizzler.  We sat in a back room and were able to visit while we ate.  We heard stories of Grandpa's final moments, reminisced about many memories we had, and planned a bit for the next week's events.  It wasn't as rowdy as our get-togethers can be, but it wasn't melancholy either.  The only way I can describe it was that it was a very loving, peaceful, uplifting night - spent with exactly the people we wanted to be with: our family.



Dave, Katie and I with Grandpa Church.