Grandaddy John

3 weeks ago I found out my grandfather had a rare cancer as I mentioned in a previous post. In fact, he is number 14 in people recorded to have had this cancer. I went with my mother and grandmother and him to his initial oncology appt where they told us they would set him up for 6 wks of radiation but thought they had removed the cancer. The following week, things went downhill for him and after researching what little is known about this cancer and talking to a friend, I realized things were not really over as far as this aggressive cancer goes. The following week, 2 weeks from today he was in the hospital and I visited him for what would be the last time. It was a great visit. He was "with it" and cut up and talked to me and I sat on his bed and held his hand and I brought my laptop to show him our blog and the last post I did with the video of Collin praying. He loved it! I also brought him a cupcake which he enjoyed. I left feeling like if that was my last visit with him, it was a good one and I somehow knew it might be. He died just three days later on my way to go see him since my mom had called that it would be soon. So last week we had his funeral. It was perfect for him. The pastor who had only known him a short time, spoke of him like he'd known him forever and showed how you could truly know the heart of my grandaddy in knowing him for a short time. My brother, cousin and I (his only grandkids) all spoke. We were so nervous and cried through our speeches but stood together and although we had not talked about what we would say, we all said the same things about him which was a testimony to who he was and what he meant to all of us. He was an amazing man of God, husband of 62 years (on Sunday), father, grandfather, great grandfather and patriot. As a tribute to my grandfather I wanted to post my speech. After the funeral, his graveside service was also so incredible as he had wanted a military funeral with TAPS and the ceremonial folding and passing the flag that draped his casket to my grandmother. I had never witnessed it and he would have loved it! My brother had even mentioned in his speech how when we were little, grandaddy would march us outside and make us salute the flag and help him fold it the correct way as he took it down in the evenings! Here is my tribute to him:

One of my greatest blessings is to have closely known all four of my grandparents for my 32 years and that they all 4 have been able to spend the time with my three children.  Every year in February on my birthday, Grandaddy John would call me and say,” Have I ever told you how cold it was on the night you were born…and how we had to sleep on hard tables at the hospital all night waiting for you to come?” Many years he would also call my other granddaddy to reminisce about my birthday. It was calls like these I hold so dear to my heart because I know how much my grandfather loved us grandchildren, and all of our family. A call to granddaddy to hear him say he was “tip top” always brightened a sad day for me. He was someone you wanted to be with because he loved life and loved the Lord and it radiated through him in how he treated anyone he met. he had such a gift for making you feel like you were the most important thing and everything you did was so special and he wanted to know all about it.  When I was at Emory in school, he would ask me different things about the body and medicine. He loved to ask my husband about teaching children music. I will so miss his talks when he would tell us a story from the army or college or try to teach us about church politics or the stock market and how he would make us feel so special when he would ask questions about how things were going. This week I ran across letters he would write me monthly in college and send corny cartoon and jokes because he knew I would roll my eyes. I will so miss all his joking around/cutting up. He loved to make people laugh and kept us all laughing until the end. On my last day with him when he was in the hospital, he was going for a biopsy and my grandmother, mother and I all kissed him goodbye. We had other family that was sitting on a couch in the room. When they didn’t get up, granddaddy looked at them and jokingly said, “I know all you who didn’t get up don’t give a rip!”

It was always fun to go out to eat with grandmother and granddaddy and see how the servers reacted when he introduced himself as a crazy name like “Charles McNugnick” or tease them in some way. Jo and John always had their regular restaurants where the workers knew them and bring them extra rolls or dessert bc they knew granddaddy had a sweet tooth. Even though sometimes people didn’t know how to take grandadddy’s joking, by the time he left the restaurant, the servers would always love him because he would take the time to ask them their name or something about themselves because he genuinely cared. No telling how many countless servers my grandparents have prayed for and given money to and formed relationships with. Grandmother and Grandaddy  are the most generous people you will ever meet. They loved people with their smiles, their time and their gifts. I remember getting into their car one day and finding a chart granddaddy had made (in his extremely organized and particular way) and the chart was a schedule of days that he and some of his friends would take a disabled woman to run her errands. This was a very typical thing for my grandparents to do. I am sure in heaven my grandfather has now seen some of the fruit of his love and generosity through the years. He wanted everyone to know Jesus and he truly showed Jesus’ love.

It’s hard for us grandkids to imagine life without granddaddy’s firm hugs or rough pats on the head  or hearing  grandmother say, “oh Johnny” and roll her eyes when he was joking around.  I’m going to miss watching him eat the last bites on our plates as grandmother calls him HGC, human garbage can. 2 weeks ago I was with him at a doctor’s appt and the nurse asked if he was depressed or anxious. He said, “well I get excited when I know I’m going to have something good to eat!”

I will so miss watching his deep love for our grandmother and I will miss listening to his sweet prayers praising God for our family. But I am so thankful I will see him again. I will never forget saying goodbye and hugging granddaddy the last time I saw him last week. He said one of his favorite phrases, “You’re outta sight baby, you know that.” But what I told him was, “No granddaddy, you’re out of sight.”