Papa's Post (Momma, only read on a "strong" day, please)

Ok, I have been wanting to post about this, but it is just still so hard. I am afraid that if I don't post this one, that I'll never get to it. I will only leave this one up as my newest post for a day or two, because it's really hard to see this picture of Papa, before he got sick. This picture is of my Papa, Meme, and my nephew, Jacob and my niece, Taylor. Papa was such a handsom man, wasn't he? He was so tall...the runt of 7 brothers and sisters, can you believe that? (I think that was right, mom-let me know if I have that number wrong) His sister, Ruth, was at the funeral, and she was VERY tall!

Anyways, about this post....

As I've mentioned before, I have carried on my mother's tradition from when I was a little girl, and each time Mia has shots, I have bought her a new book. Well, I was at Sam's, and this book jumped out at me! She'll never get to know her Papa, but I am going to make sure she knows all about the wonderful man that he was. The pages of this book tugged at my heart in so many ways. Let me explain...

The cover that grabbed my attention.

This page is very neat to me. In the story, the little boy is at his grandfather's Bible, who has passed away. After Papa passed away, we went to their house with Meme to be with her, and begin the preperations. I went directly to Papa's "chair" to cry for a bit. Sitting next to his chair, was his Bible. I picked it up and thumbed through the weathered pages. Papa had definately worn his Bible out. How comforting. He had written little sidenotes throughout the years that I sat down and read for a bit. It was very hard, but so neat to see and read his thoughts from all of his studies of the Bible and of our sweet Lord, who he is now with.



Ok, this one is the hardest to write of all, but I have to do it. When I was a little girl, we would travel by RV to Estes Park, CO every summer. We had CB's in all of our vehicles that we would communicate to each with. We all had "handles" and mine was "The Judge". As hard as this is for all of you to believe (haha) when I was little, I was not very friendly to anyone but my mom and dad. They said that when anyone would talk to me, I would stare at them with such a serious face, hence the name "The Judge".

One of my Papa's favorite stories that he told often, was that one day, on vacation, we were all walking somewhere, and he and my sister, Carrie, were up ahead of everyone else, holding hands and walking. He would always tell me that this was one of his favorite days as a grandfather. He would say that he guessed I had had enough of my sister "hogging" Papa and having him all to herself, and I finally broke away from my parents' hands, and ran up to Carrie and Papa, and slid my little hand in his. He would say from then on, he could never "get rid of me" haha. He loved that story so much. He was right, too. From that point on, when the family was together, I made sure that I was holding Papa's hand, and having him all to myself. This part has been very hard to write, but I feel this page in the book represents my Papa's favorite story of our relationship. (The picture above, with the boy holding his grandfather's hand)




These are just some comforting verses that are found in the book.

It's only been a little over a month since we lost Papa, but it still feels so fresh. I am reading a book about grief and losing a loved one. It has daily devotions on dealing with the pain. Today's was very interesting to me. It talked about how dealing with the emotions of losing a loved one can be compared to the wounds of a burn. After a severe burn, the body develops scabs over the wound. If those scabs remain, infection can set in under the scab. The scabs have to be removed in order to heal properly, and that it is a very painful process. It said that grief is like the scabs, and occasionally we have to painfully remove those scabs to the fresh wound in order for "Infection" not to set in underneath, and for healing to continue.

I guess tonight, I am scrubbing those scabs....