Celebration of Life

Yesterday was my Dad's Celebration of Life in my home. My 18yo was unable to be here because he was on an offical recruiting trip. He wrote this before he left to have our Deacon read for him. The pic is of life long friends, my brothers and me at the celebration. We had a packed house and celebrated my Dad's life just as he would have liked.

To all the friends and family that came today to celebrate the life of Bob, I thank you for being with our family at Papa’s celebration of life. At this very moment I am away visiting CWU and may possibly be offered a full ride to go play football there. I am very disappointed that I am not here to personally give this speech on what a great man my grandfather was, but I hope you can pardon my absence. If I had not gone on this recruiting trip my grandpa would come from his grave, got in his little wheel chair, wheel his rear to my house, find me, and kill me. For the last years of his life he closely followed my football career and was absolutely excited about the possibility of me getting a football scholarship. He was probably more excited then I was. Papa would always come to as many home games as possible. He would kill himself to get there. Unless he got really sick on game day I always saw him near the sidelines watching me and my team play. He always called me after every game to see how it went, how did practice go, or just see how I was doing. I thank God everyday that he was able to come to my games this year before he passed on. It was important to him and we would talk for hours on the phone about my life and his life. He was always someone I could talk to and someone to ask for advice. It seemed as he was more then family. It’s something I can never describe in words or in person what exactly it is. It just was. These are the things I will really miss about my Papa. I wish so badly I could have seen him once more before he died. Sometimes God takes someone you love away so quickly. Perhaps it was just his time to go to the pearly gates of heaven. I know he is looking down upon us right now. I knew my Papa well and I know he wouldn’t want me to have mourning in my speech or for you to have sadness in your thoughts. He would want us go about our lives and just live. I think we should celebrate the life of my Grandfather. He wasn’t perfect as none of us are, but he definitely cared about all of us. Once again I want to express my gratitude to everyone for coming to Papa Bob’s celebration of his life. Thank you and god bless.

Love,
Brendan