Celebrating a Life

What a sweet blessing it is to know that this isn't the end... the best is yet to come.  Having an eternal perspective gives us the luxury of celebrating a life, more than mourning a death.  We all feel a great sadness and a loss- a hole in our hearts that will always miss Grandpa.  Thankfully, we have great memories, great pictures to help keep those memories alive, and a knowledge that we will see him again.

Rob's dad's funeral was a fitting tribute to him.  We laughed, we cried, we mourned, we celebrated the life of a great man.  It was a good day- emotionally exhausting, but good.  The kids did great- much better than I expected.  The funeral felt a bit like a wrestling match with the youngest two, but at least they were quiet.  I didn't have to pass Abby off to my sister until near the very end.

Here are all the young grandkids drawing durning the viewing just before the funeral.

The good thing about funerals is, you get to see family that you don't normally get to see often.  We were lucky to have gotten to see my brother-in-law Walt twice this year!  Here he is with Rob's sister Charity.

Abby with her Great Grandma.  I'm sure it was a hard day for her.  You're not supposed to out-live your kids. 

Sena and Camryn

Our great friends (and old home teacher) Dennis and Gail.  They've always been there for Rob's family!

This may be my favorite picture from the day.  Matthew spent a lot of time just looking at the pictures of Grandpa.  He misses him.  Grandpa was always so good to play with the kids, and tease them.  They loved to climb on his lap.

Walt, Carston, Rob, Logan and Abby 

His body was layed to rest at the very top of the Salt Lake Cemetery.  It is so beautiful, with a gorgeous view overlooking the whole valley.

 

 

Rob dedicated the grave, but I didn't get to hear much of the prayer.  Matthew was sitting on the fake green grass stuff next to the casket and started bouncing.  Not only was it noisy, but made the casket shake.  So I grabbed him off and he started to squeal.  I had to hurry him away from everyone, thus missing most of the prayer.  I'm sure Rob did a great job, and I'm sad to have missed it.  Stinker Matthew!

 Somehow, the setting on my camera got switched to shutter-priority, leaving the shutter open longer than it should- leaving all my pictures washed out.  When I saw how they turned out when I loaded them on my computer, I just cried.  I took a lot of pictures too!  I tried, and my sister tried to enhance them, but it didn't work.  I'm just sick about it.  I hope someone else took pictures.  It was such a bright day, with such vibrant colors.  I'm posting some of my pictures anyway- they look a bit surreal, but then, the whole experience was surreal too.

 Each grandchild got to place a flower on the casket.  Here's Nathan.

and Sarah

Jerany and Camryn

Nathan

Sarah being goofy

While we hung out there, the grandkids starting playing guns in the cemetery, hiding behind head stones...  I don't know, maybe it's irreverent, or disrespectful, but I think Grandpa would have liked it.

I didn't much care for Matthew climbing on the headstones, but I had to take a picture first, before making him get down.

 Clint with the ducks from the flower arrangement.

Brandon, Steve and Logan

Brandon has a great group of friends that came to support him.  ...and what picture isn't better with Jerany in it?!

Walt with Carston and Kaleb

Back at the church, the Relief Society put on a great dinner for Rob's large family.  It was so nice!  Matthew has a mind of his own, and preffered to sit at a table all by himself and eat.

Shirley's family has been very supportive.  It was a hard day for her, but she held up really well.  Rob's sisters got to stay with her for a few days, then her sister Jana came to stay with her so she won't have to be alone.  They will be so good for each other!

Me and Sarah

After the dinner, we went to Grandma's house to hang out.  She has great neighbors that have been so good to them since they moved in 4 months ago.  I think she is going to stay here in Utah, instead of going back to their home in Oregon.  We are excited about that!  Since Shirley doen't have anything for the grandkids to play on yet, her neighbor invited all the kids to play in her yard.  They had a blast! 

Shirley and aunt Jan

Rob's birthday was the next day, so we had cake and ice cream with everyone.  I feel bad, but we didn't really do anything to celebrate on his birthday.  We were so exhausted.  We made it to church, then just layed around.  So... Happy Birthday lievert!

Now we're at the hard part, the life goes on part.  Though the world seemed to stop turning for us for a few weeks, it still went on for the rest of the world.  Now we have to jump back into that life, and adjust to life without a dad and a grandpa.  It stinks!  We think about him every day.  I'm sure Rob has had several times when he's wanted to call his dad with a question.  We will miss him every day, but I'm sure time will help the hurt.  We are thankful for the thoughs and prayers from our  sweet friends and family.  And we are most thankful for our Lord and Savior, and the great plan of happiness.