Grandchildren Thoughts & Memories

 read by Kara at the funeral

One of my dad’s favorite names was Grandpa. He was adored by 17 grandkids. He especially loved going out back with them to see the chickens and the tortoise, and to show them the garden. When he visited his Grandpa Edwards as a child, his grandpa would give him a quarter, so our dad decided he wanted to give his grandkids a dollar coin every Sunday when they came for dinner. Our mom was like, really? A dollar? Every time? But he insisted, so the grandkids have been filling their piggy banks with coins from Grandpa. Today at the gravesite, each grandchild will put one coin on his casket. 

 Sometimes when the rest of us were involved in playing a game, we would look over at the kid’s table or the living room floor and Grandpa would be playing Uno or Candyland with the grandkids. He was often found rolling around on the floor with grandkids all over him. It reminded us of playing a game as kids called “Jump on Dad” where it was us against him in a tickle fight. We always seemed to lose, and when someone started crying, Mom would make us stop. 

Each grandchild shared a favorite thing or memory about him:

Eileen age 10’s favorite memory is giving him special artwork they made for him on Father’s Day that he really liked. 

Evie, age 10, says, “He always came to every soccer game and was always positive and congratulated us even if we did a bad job or lost the game.”

Morgan, age 8, says, “I loved playing rock, paper, scissors, pickle with him.”

Evanie age 7’s favorite memory was every time we would sleep over at his house, he would wake up early and make us eggs for breakfast—eggs from his chickens. 

Emmy, age 6, says, “I like that Grandpa always checked on us when we were swimming in his swimming pool.”

Parker, age 6, says, “I liked looking at his plants and picking grapefruit from his trees.” 

After finding out about his death, Elena, age 5, said, “Is Grandpa going to be the tooth fairy now?” 

Whenever he was told he was going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Jayden, age 4, would ask, “Which grandpa? The one with the chickens?” 

Dottie, age 4, says, “He let me go with him through the maze of his backyard and we saw lots of little yellow flowers and we went under a pointy bush so we wouldn’t get poked.” 

Greyson, age 4, says, “I’m excited to get a pumpkin from Grandpa’s pumpkin patch, and carving a monster in it on Halloween day.” 

One time when Grandpa gave Lachlan, age 3, a coin Grandpa showed him how he could put it in a little pocket on his shirt. Every time after that when he got a coin, Lachlan would try to put it in his shirt pocket and when he didn’t have a pocket, he would just put the coin down his shirt.

This is a conversation my sister, Kristen, had with her son, Blake, age 3, after Grandpa’s death:

“We are going to Grandma’s house now but Grandpa isn’t there anymore, he is in heaven.”  

Blake said: “In heaven with Jesus? I saw Jesus at Grandma Ipson’s house.” 

Kristen replied: “Okay, but there is going to be no more Grandpa, no more chickens, no more eggs, and no more coins.” 

Blake said: “Is there going to be dinner?” 

Kristen said, “Yes.” 

And Blake said, “Okay, lets go!” 

Kendall, age 3, called Grandpa’s house “Grandpa and Grandpa’s house” instead of including Grandma.

Brigdon, age 2, loved holding Grandpa’s hand to go outside to see his chickens. 

Aslin, who is about to turn 2, loved playing games with Grandpa and called him “Baylo” instead of the Spanish word for Grandpa which is “Abuelo.” 

And Carson and Kolton, age 10 and 7 months, loved staring at Grandpa and grabbing his glasses when he held them.

There is no doubt in my mind that he loved each one and they loved him.