A Very Hard Day - One Year Later

This is written on a very hard day. Today 1 year ago I was called around 11am and it was my mom. We had just found out 2 weeks prior that my Grandpa had got some kind of vaccine that was not a fully tested injection. A few years back he had had a scare of some kind of heart issue and I thought he wouldn't make it out of that surgery. He did, with flying colors. He even made it to both my brother and my sister's weddings. At my sister's wedding I spent a lot of time with him. He even told me how proud he was of me for the choices I made. I hadn't seen my Grandpa since my baptism almost 10 years before my sister's wedding. It was a great time. Then he came to my brother's wedding just last summer. He was as healthy as you could be at his age. Then came another, unnecessary scare, of a "second wave" of a virus. Also rolled out was a "new" addon to the untested vaccine. With his age and his previous heart condition his body could not handle such a harsh injection. Two weeks after this, my mother had flown down to Arizona to see him. She called me on the phone and everyone was very distraught and not thinking correctly to be able to make decisions. It was asked of me what to do. If he had been left on Life support he may have lived a few more days. As it was, he was taken off the life support and drifted into a painless sleep. Either decision would have left grandpa not being here. I added grandpa as one of my "Guest Writers" on my blogsite in memory of him to share certain things he had wrote. Sometimes I come across as "being cold" to certain things that have happened in my life. I cry privately for these things so that in my distress I can still think correctly and help those who cannot get through things as easily as me. I have been through 3 Grandfathers, a Grandmother, My Wife's Grandfather and Her Grandmother. Grief is hard for me, harder than most people think. Today I will remember as a stepping stone into a greater time rather than a loss of someone I dearly loved. My Grandfather was in ministry for 54 years and now he will be in the presence of God for eternity. Below this line is the eulogy I wrote with some help from my mom: Murray, or as I called him Grandpa, was truly a wonderful person. He loved his family and his wife very much. He would always tell his daughter Marlys, that she was his favorite daughter since she was his only daughter. That always made her laugh. He loved his sons as well and always made sure his family was taken care of. Grandpa loved his grandchildren no matter how far away they lived, and some even moved closer which made it easier to visit. Anybody you ask that knew him would tell you he was always studying. Sometimes, the kids would have to beat him into the restroom because he would take his books with him. At one Christmas they didn’t have enough money for their holiday and the kids prayed with their daddy. A few days before Christmas that year they received a letter in the mail from the local farmer who attended the church along with 200$ to spend for their holiday. There were times that you would be talking to Murray (Grandpa) and he always had simple answers. You could tell him everything you did today, and he would simply say, “Oh.” We remember Murray as a loving man who served the Lord with all his heart, soul and mind every single day. We remember him as the father that picked us up when we fell no matter how hard. We remember him as Grandpa, a friend and mentor in every aspect of life. As we remember him as he was in life, remember him in his death that he was saying, “Lord, your will be done.”