The Friday before Christmas my dear and beloved Grandpa Thaine Taylor passed away, just a few weeks before his 100th birthday. He was in the same room at home in which he was born when he closed his eyes for the last time on this earth. My parents were with him and explained what a bitter-sweet, emotionally spiritual moment it was. This is a wedding photo of my grandparents in 1927. He has been without my Granny for 5 years and is finally able to be with her again. He was the last surviving child of the 14 born to his parents, so I'm sure there has been a great reunion happening in heaven.
Here he is with Seth just back in September. What a legacy he has given all of us!
The funeral was the following Friday, and all of my siblings (sans spouses and kids) and cousins came to participate. All nine of us grandchildren took a few minutes at the funeral to relate our thoughts and memories of our grandpa. Here are a few snippets of my comments I wanted to share:
I will someday tell my children who won’t get to know their great-grandpa the way I have that he was a respectful, diligent, humble working man who was free of judgement and lived the best life he knew how. Whenever people of all walks of life have come to visit him, he always had a witty anecdote, words of encouragement or bit of farmer’s wisdom to pass along. Through my sadness is a happiness in knowing that he has received his reward for the life he lived. It has been said that when we are born to this earth, heaven cries and the earth rejoices. We should live so that when we leave this life, the earth cries and heaven rejoices. We cry now because we have lost our Grandpa, but heaven is surely rejoicing at his homecoming.
"Chappell" kids Darrell, me, Terilyn, Gerilyn
1 comment:
This brought tears to my eyes. Very well said. I wish now that I could have know your grandpa. Thank you for sharing.
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