My dear Children,
I now regret that I did not get to know my grandfather better. We lived together in the same home from the time I was one and a half years old until he died. Of course I knew he lived there and I remember as a child that he used to hold me and rock me in his old rocking chair by the kitchen window. If I remember correctly he could still see a little bit from one eye. He had lost one eye somehow and had a glass eye to replace it. But he was going blind in the other eye. In a few years he was totally blind. Today they could have saved his sight.
I don’t remember him talking very much. He would sit many hours a day rocking by the window. He did have a radio that he would listen to every night. I often wondered what he would think about all those hours. I don’t remember hearing him complain about his blindness. One day he spoke to me about it, he said; “I would give anything to be able to see you playing in the yard”. That is the only time I ever heard him say anything about his eyes.
Now I don’t really remember anything about him dying. It seems like all of a sudden he was gone. I am sure he must have died there at home; back then most people did die at home.
Even blind, he tried to do what he could. There was a wire four or five feet from the ground between the house and the barn and he would go to the barn several times a day and try to clean out the cows and take care of things. There were four bedrooms in our house one on the first floor and three on the second floor. My grandmother was a big woman and she used the room on the first floor. I think she had problems with her legs. My sisters used one of the rooms upstairs my dad another and I had to sleep with grandfather. He slept quiet enough, but what I remember is that both he and the bed had an old person smell and every now and then we ran into a bedbug problem. The other thing was the thunder jug! It was under the bed and that was what my grandfather used but all too often. I had the job of dumping it out. I am glad those days are behind me.
I was the baby of the family and I was so wrapped up in myself. I was the center of the world and as a result I learned nothing about my family. I am sure my grandfather could have told me some wonderful stories about his life and his family. I believe he came down from
My grandfather built the house we lived in. I think he was a blacksmith and he might have had a accident doing that and lost his eye. We had a blacksmith shop near our house and the lighting hit it one night and it burned to the ground.
I wish I could tell you more about grandpa. He was a kind man and I often wonder what he thought about all those hours. I believe he knew the Lord Jesus, because he had such peace
I like to think he spent some of that time praying for all of us. For all of my children reading this, learn as much as you can about your family. Listen to their stories and tell your stories to whoever will listen. Pass something along to your loved ones. With the computers today it is so easy to write and save and pass these things along to the next generation.
I want you to take time to do this! Thank you for it!
I also want you to pray for one another and do it every day.
The Lord hears your prayers and he does answer them.
I pray for all of you very often.
Your loving Father