Our favorite memories with Grandpa are of going to the farm with him, where he taught us a lot about farming, but more about having fun with each other. He took us for rides on the tractor and even on the cows, let us climb on the hay, and let us run through the cornfields. We loved sleep overs at Grandpa and Grandma’s, where the owl cookie jar was always full ... we’d have zucchini bread for dinner and ebble skivers were waiting for us when we woke up.
Dad has said he’s never heard Granda say a bad word about anyone, and likewise there’s never been a bad word said about Grandpa. In fact, I’ve always said if there’s any relationship I could mimmic, it’d be my Dad’s relationship with Grandpa.
We had the opportunity to talk to many of you over the past few days about our grandpa and we noticed we heard the same words over and over again when remembering him: Man of Integrity, Hard Worker, Loyal, Persistent, Patient, caregiver and Witty were words that came up over and over again.......These are traits that we are very proud of and have always looked up to him for, which is why we both named our firstborns, Griffin Forrest and Jordan, after him. We hope Grandpa’s memory will live on as we work to instill these traits in them. A few stories illustrate these traits well. Grandpa has always been a caregiver, so he fell into the role of being both father and mother easily - he did all the cooking, all the cleaning, and thought nothing of showing up to the mother/son banquet with a casserole and homemade pie in hand. When asked what he did for childcare for Gail and Dad when he was doing a lot of custom corn shelling, he replied “I just bought them each a shovel!”
The boys grew up hearing “sports were for town kids,” - afteralll, he had plenty of work to keep them busy, and busy they were, all working hard together. He showed them the way in their own livestock and farming ventures. There is no doubt that our Dad and Gail have always worked hard and had the same positive attitude that came straight from Grandpa. They have so much respect for Grandpa and could not be more proud of him.
Grandpa had an amazing work ethic. His motto was to always do the best he could, and he truly did. Many people have said he was the hardest worker they ever met. For example, in his spare time from farming, he single-handedly took down a lumber yard that covered about 3/4 of a block with just a few hand tools, board by board and saved all the lumber, pulled all the nails and what he didn’t sell, he used to build three houses.
Grandpa had many sayings that will always stay with us: Many of you have probably heard him say, “it’s a great life if you don’t weaken.” Another one that Gail and Dad woke up hearing is, “today’s the day of the race” and they would say, “What race?” to which Grandpa would reply “The human race” His work ethic carried on all through his life, even to the nursing home where he felt his job was to get better and often said to visitors, ‘all a guy can do is try as hard as he can.
The thing we loved most about Grandpa was his sense of humor which we always looked forward to being around...he was a master of wit, always making us smile. When I saw him before he turned 90, I asked him what the secret to living to 90 was, and he said, “I think making it to 89 is a pretty good start!”
Very few people live to be 90 years old, but the world was a better place because our Grandpa did. Now I know it’s probably tough to make heaven a better place, but I’m pretty sure it just became one!
I love you Great Grandpa!
Love,
Jordan
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