On May 6th, (the same day as Austin's baptism) my Granddaddy passed away. He had just turned 90 in February and had been going slowly downhill for a while. Ever since my Jeannemommie passed away 6 years ago, he has talked about her every day and desperately missed her. I am so happy that he was able to reunite with her and now they are worshipping our Lord together in heaven. Grandaddy was a strong and intelligent man who served his county in WWII and was the oldest deacon of his church. Things I will always remember about him are they way he adored his wife, his barn full of license plates he collected from all over the world, how much he loved to travel, his love for polka and jazz music, how he wore his cowboy hat and boots everywhere he went (and he had a ton of them!), how he would always want me to sit on his lap as a kiddo and all the rides I took with him on his riding lawn mower, the many fun Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays we had at their house as a kid with our whole family, his chiming clocks in their house, how he was on time (early) everywhere he went, his love for his church and how he served there for many, many years, the several times he tried to talk to me about the dangerous 'world' as a teen and college student, how proud he was of my husband being a pastor and how he would always ask him and give him advice about our current church and ministry, how he and my Jeannemommie drove down to Waco right after Austin was born to meet their first great grand baby, (that meant the world to me), how devastated he was (we all were) when his wife and best friend of 60 years passed away, and the most recent memory of my own children exploring my grandparents house and barn like I did as a child.
This was the last picture of my kiddos with their great grandfather at his 90th Birthday/Reunion. I will cherish it forever.
It's amazing to think that on the day my first born was declaring to the church that he was new in Christ through baptism, my sweet Granddaddy went to be with our Lord. He carried on quite a legacy. Because of his and my grandmother's faithfulness, generations after them are surrendering their lives to the Lord.
He LOVED his barn and spent countless hours there doing his favorite hobby, nailing up license plates.
There are over 25,000 license plates from all over the world in there!
I stole this pic from my
sister's blog because I love it so much! This is a picture of 6 of the 9 grandchildren with my grandparents. I can hear Jeannemommie laughing right now in my head.
I loved her laugh. I loved them. I am forever grateful for the influence they had in my life.
