Services

The viewing will be held Sunday, December 12, 2010 from 6-8pm at Anderson Mortuary.

There will also be a viewing Monday morning from 9:45-10:45; the funeral will start at 11:00 all at Anderson Mortuary. 

Dad is at Peace

At 4:47, 12/9/10 Dad is at peace. We mourn his loss greatly, but know he is in a far better place
and no longer in pain.
We love you Dad and will be forever grateful for all you have given, taught and sacrificed for us.
Your are a pheonomal Husband, Father,Brother, friend, Grandfather and Great Grandfather.
You have earned your wings and it is time for you to soar.

It takes a village

Thanks to Lori and Patricia who relieved Kelli and I last night. I am so glad to hear dad had a restful night.

Poor Trish was here all night with me Monday, been running around trying to keep us all straight and taken care of. She is an angel - our angel.  More worried about us and what she can do for us. Blessings come in strange ways - Patricia not having a job and being available to sit with dad when we needed her to was a huge blessing! She has always been willing to be there when needed.

Lori arrived yesterday and has been by dad's side ever since. Although she hasn't been close in distance we have known she was close in heart.

Kelli has been a huge part of dad's care for the past 3 years.  We are all indebted to her for always being there for dad and taking such good care of him. Kelli took on a lot over the years to fill in for all of us.

Jill and John have also helped out over the years - thank you!  Mitch - you are amazing; thank you for all your support you have given dad over all these years. Thanks for being there when we couldn't.  Thanks to everyone else for all your love and support in this difficult time in our lives.

As we all gather this afternoon, as a family, we be leaning on each other and saying our good-byes. 

12/8/10 Update

Dad has been confined to his bed since Sunday, he is not eating and drinking.  We are keeping him as comfortable as possible.  Although he appears to be unresponsive to us he was rambling what appears to be memories from the past around 4am this morning. 

We have been staying with him day and night. We appreciate the prayers and support for our family and friends. 

Kelli & Jerri

How do you say good-bye?

Each of us are faced with how to say good-bye to dad.  Normal good-byes are not easy let alone to say good-bye to such a wonderful man. However if I had to choose for him to live in pain or to say good-bye; my choice would be the later.  I can not bear to see him in pain, he has never done anything in his life to deserve an ounce of pain.  He is such a wonderful, kind, generous man.  I guess we all have to let him go, bid him a life in the hereafter pain free, and tell him we will see him again some day.  We all know that we have a guardian angel for life. 

I love you dad seems fail by comparison to the love he has shown, but none the less I love you from here to eternity and back!

(This post was inspired by Patricia - thanks Patricia I've been struggling with what I can post tonight.)

No new update today - We are trying to simply keep dad out of pain. 

For those of you who have been by recently - thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

For those of you unable to visit - feel free to write him a message and Patricia will read it to him.

Keeping in Mind Granpa's Life...

Sometimes watching Grandpa so upset and in pain is hard to bare. I don't like seeing him with such a gloomy look on his face. It breaks my heart and most the time all I want to do is chop off our heads and switch bodies so he doesn't have to be in pain. I also know that others are especially having a hard time watching like Aunt Kelli and my mom. However, I figured I would share my ways of dealing and coping with this for others so possibly this isn't AS hard. I think of what might have happened in his younger days and growing up. I always look at him and see a young, rather handsome man laughing and playing with all his kids and grandkids. I can just imagine him at high school with all the girls hitting on him.  Quite honestly grandpa had a wonderful life full of love, joy, and happiness with his family and friends and thinking of this always makes me feel slightly better. I always think of my favorite picture of him when his is working on a car (i think) and he is looking up and away with a HUGE handsome smile! My grandfather is a very loving, kind, sweethearted man and no one wants to see him go through this... but I must also point out that we should keep in mind Grandpa's life...


~Kyndal

Update 12/4/2010

Dad had a rough night and was very tearful this morning.  We think the tears are because he is afraid to leave us and because he was in pain.  We have been giving him morphine hourly today and he is finally resting in bed.  Steve Allred came and gave him a blessing today.  He seems much more peaceful since the blessing - I am so grateful!

visit with the nurse

yesterday was our day with the hospice nurse, dad was a little tried by the time candy got their, he seems to be getting a head cold, but his lung did not have any cracking or sounds of fluid in them so that was a good sign, we can handle a head cold. we took his night time morphine pill away he was having some weird dreams as he called them, so we stopped them, and that seems to help his sleeping at night if he is not wondering around the house getting lost, because he told me last night the house keeps moving on him when he gets up at night, i told him maybe he should not wonder as much at night and get some sleep and the house won't twist on him as much, he just looked at me. the nurse said he was doing pretty good, and nothing new was to report. the social worker also stopped by to check on him for a few minutes, but dad just did not seen to interested in any conversation at that point.