Memories...

Today, my Grandfather's passing has really hit me very hard.  I just started thinking of memories shared with him, reading wonderful things that family/friends/etc have been saying about him, looking through pictures, and reminiscing with family. 

He was the sweetest, loving, strong man.  A Grandfather wasn't all he was to us.  Other ways to describe him would be Friend, Father Figure, and Guide to name a few. 

I think of the hat he always wore, the WWII stories he always told, his smile, the duck noise he would make for the kids, the whistled, and so many of his mannerisms.

I can picture him standing with his hands in his pockets jingling his keys or coins as if he is standing in front of me.  He loved button downs with his khaki pants.  Sometimes he would wear a sweater over his button downs. 

I'll always remember him giving us rides to school or picking us up.  Then, there are the times we'd go with him and my Grandmother (passed 12 1/2 years ago) for ice cream to a place called Applegate Farms (the original).  All of the ice cream is home-made and delicious. 

Going to the park is another memory and he would collect all of the tennis balls that were just left and forgotten outside of the fences of the tennis courts.  Then, he'd give them to the kids. 

He had so many stories about the town we grew up in.  As we would drive through towns to get to our destinations, he'd have stories about places we saw. 

My Grandfather loved his coffee in the mornings.  Mornings that he would drive me to school, he would have an orange juice and a buttered roll or something else waiting for me in the car.

We found cards that my Grandfather got for my Grandmother.  They were cards he got for her every year on her birthday.  They were for every year after she had passed and they had beautiful things that he wrote in them to her.  This was so touching, so beautiful, and yet so sad at the same time.

I'm just so heartbroken today.  It's so hard and today I said, "Wow, I can't believe he is really gone".  I can not stop thinking about him and all the memories.

He is loved and will be missed more than words could ever express!

Time to get some sleep for the services that begin tomorrow.