It's been a tough few 10 weeks

This is a picture of my parents taken August 3, 1945 at a Bible camp called Pinebrook. This was the week they met and the week Dad proposed to Mom.  They were later married August 2, 1947. What followed was 61 years of marriage. Six children. Twenty-one Grandchildren and Eight Great Grandchildren.

Mom passed on the day before Thanksgiving last year, November 26, 2008.  Dad passed last week, January 27, 2009. We've all joked that perhaps Mom order Dad's presence in heaven. That perhaps at some point God just gave in to her constant nagging, realized this man must be a saint and his probationary time on earth was done.

January 27th started off a little different. After about four and half hours of sleep I woke up and looked at the clock, it was 5:00 am. A little early to get up but I thought what the heck....I need to drive to Salt Lake, the roads had been bad the previous day and perhaps by going early I could avoid all the idiots on the road. I showered, dressed, went down stairs at the computer. After a few moments the phone rang. Not wanting to wake anyone up I grabbed it quickly without even looking at the caller-id. I said hello, the guy on the other end asked if it was Drew. Strange I thought, since I didn't recognize his voice right away and who calls you at 5:30 in the morning? It was Dad's doctor, Ian McMaster and he had bad news. Strange how it hit me...strange because I didn't know even what to do. It was unexpected yet so expected. We thought we would have lost dad every since he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure 4 years ago. I sort of expected him to pass ever since then...but for some reason I also didn't expect it. I was confused....I asked what they needed me to do...nothing was the answer. 

I told Cheri....she was shocked...I called some of the brothers and delegated the rest of the calls. I sat there with nothing to do...in a bit of shock...yet wanting to do something. So, I wrote his obituary. That may seem strange. It may seem rather cold....but I knew the chores that were before me having just gone through this process with Mom. And I knew that a wise use of time would keep my mind off of things.

I used my phone to text my boss. I knew he was on the west coast and being an east coast guy he would most likely be up. He told me today when he saw that text asking if I could call it couldn't be good. 

Eventually I went upstairs and woke Adria and Megan. It was hard to say. They took it hard. But then how can you break news like this easily? I certainly haven't learned that trick very well but I doubt you ever can.

We purposely didn't want to tell the little ones. We wanted them to go to school and have a normal day. We needed them out of our hair for a bit so we could attend to the chores at hand.

Adria, Megan and I went out for breakfast, and grabbed a bite for Cheri. We then decided to try the Facebook experiment. What would happen if we made an entry on Facebook. I'll admit, there was a bit of the geek in me coming out - but I knew it was also a good way to get the word to lots of friends who would want to know. Within minutes people responded. It was touching.

The next few days sort of blended together. To be honest the chore of planing a funeral was so recent in my skill set that it wasn't hard to plan that appropriately. It sucked.....but yet it was somewhat easy just to do the task and remove myself from the emotion of it all.

All the brothers made it to Utah. A few brought their spouse. One nephew came. The viewing was Friday evening. Dad looked just like Mom. He was a shell, that was all. He didn't look like himself and you knew he wasn't there.  Even our youngest two new it.

The youngest two had a knack during these days. There were fun. They were young. They were entertaining. They made everyone laugh. They helped take the edge off of the events of the viewing and the funeral and all the heavy feelings that the rest of us felt.

The Day of the funeral was very touching. Ray gave the eulogy and did an excellent job. Ray and Doug also sung "I Believe in Christ." Dad was an active scouter. A scout of one sort or another for over 70 years.  Many scouters were there dressed in uniform to show their respect. That got me....the honor...the thoughtfulness. It was very touching. Up to that point I had done pretty good....but the kindness of others truly touched me. On our way out of the chapel with the six of us being the pall bearers, we were greatly touched at the site we saw. The Bishop of Dad's old Ward had arranged for all the Boy Scouts to line the sidewalk with scouts holding flags.  They stood at attention in solute. 

Then at the funeral two Eagle Scouts, gave another fitting tribute.  After the dedication of the grave they played taps. They did an echo of sort.....one playing near the grave...the 2nd farther away in response to the first.  It was a very nice and touching honor to a great man.

Dad helped over 2000 Scouts in Springville and the surround area get their Eagle.  He worked at the local hardware store for over 20 years. While having dinner in Spanish Fork before the viewing Cheri, the kids, and I ran into someone who recognized us. When they asked why we were dressed up and who the funeral was for, they immediately knew George...he had helped their boys get their Eagles. This was a common event over the next few days and it was nice to hear from everyone.