Grandpa Charles

Today Grandpa Charles passed away. He was the only grandpa I knew, although he was not biological mine, but my half-siblings. He and Grandma Emma always were so much fun, and although her passing 3 yrs ago was very sad and everyone worried about grandpa, his passing is more of a relief as we all know he was ready to be with God, and his Emma again. He stayed strong for 3 yrs after her passing, and stubbornly tried to be as independent as possible. With Susan's company he seemed to be happy and hopeful, even though he still had many sad moments of missing his wife who he had spent over 60 yrs with.
   Susan would take him to church and out to eat at his favorite places. They were good room-mates for each other. After he had multiple strokes and his dementia took over just a few weeks ago, he was in and out of the ICU and board and care hospitals so she moved out here with us.
I pray he will be guided to the Lord, and forgiven his sins. I pray that his family still here, will grow in faith and love. <3 .="">

   I am grateful my kids even had some memories of being with them, and playing at their house and in his awesome yard. I will never forget that he bought this house for $13k, and worked to grow grapes and oranges (so good!) to be enjoyed by his kids, their kids, and his kid's kid's kids! What a legacy. Lots of memories. Here are some--I don't have time to caption/label each one, but most of these have been on the blog before anyway:

Here is a video when we briefly lived with him in January 2011. Olivia had just turned 1 yr old and was learning to walk. :)

Here's a cute video when one morning, grandpa asked me, "Samantha, what in the devil is twitter?" I couldn't really answer as I never had one...but his reading of this comic strip was hilarious:

~ Rest in peace Grandpa ~