Friends Forever

I had the wonderful privilege of having Pops marry my husband and I :)

Today I lost a very dear friend to me.  When you have a friend that you're very close with you say they're "like family to me" or "I love her like a sister".  I'm not sure you hear that phrase the other way around too often.  But for me it's all too true.  Pops was my paternal grandfather.  He was a gardening-advice-giver, Mr.-Fix-It, I'll-show-you-not-do-it-for-you-kinda-teacher, lover-of-The-Word, PBS-watcher, NRA-member and Outdoors-enthusiast.  Webster's Dictionary defines friend as someone who is a favored companion;  Pops was just that, a companion.  We've lived no less than six hours away from each other my whole life, and yet he's been one of my closest companions from childhood thru college and into my years of marriage and motherhood.  I may not have been able to enjoy his presence on a daily basis, but I cherish the many many phone calls regularly spent talking with him.  Several times he's told me he needed to get off the phone or else I'd end up keeping him for two hours like my daddy does...he would then go off on a tangent and continue our phone call until we had indeed been on the phone for two hours :)

Oh! Did I mention he was crazy about his family? He was.  He had five children, sixteen grandchildren, and my own baby made him a great-grandfather.  He had a funny nickname for all of us. Mervanner, Munchkin, South Dakota, Leroy, Stitch, Just Terrific, Cassie Mae, Outlaw, Brown-Eyed Honey, Brown-Eyed Darlin, and half of those are just my siblings and I!  He loved introducing us to everyone he knew whenever any of us got a chance to visit him.  Whether it was church or Walmart, he made sure to show us off.  I couldn't even begin to count the times that he's taken any of us for a week or so in the summers.  We would go fishing, hunting, or maybe even drive over to Shiloh, Tn to see some Civil War Reenactments.  

One particular summer he took my dad, myself, my two sisters, and two of my cousins camping at a place called Cecil's Creek.  The first night there I remember him standing outside of the tents in his tidy-whities banging sticks together to ward off some coyotes we heard getting close.  Once we all fell back asleep it started storming causing everything to get wet!  The next morning our campground was decorated with underwear, clothes, and camping bags hanging in the trees to dry-it was a pretty funny sight!

I am extremely thankful for the twenty-six years I have had him in my life, and even more thankful that I will have him for eternity!  Death is such a hard road to travel, but when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will see that person again it's a little less labored.  I know that the burden of death won't be as heavy because I will see my Pops again.  

For now though I miss my friend and can't quite believe he's gone.  I'm praying for that peace that passes understanding for myself and family; Our lives will never be the same.

" Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.  For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.  According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore encourage one another with these words." - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18