The Buie Blog: Saying Goodbye to Grandpa...for now!

My grandpa passed away on January 29. He was 90 years old and was married to my grandmother for 72 years! Today we remembered him and the wonderful way he lived life.

Although I loved my Grandpa dearly and I know he loved me, we never lived close enough to each other in proximity to spend tons of time together. Growing up I would see my grandparents at Christmas or Thanksgiving and then maybe one or two other times each year. As an adult even less that that. We would talk on the phone a handful of times each year. I never had that incredible "close" relationship with him...never lucky enough to have him involved in my day to day life. But I know he was always interested in hearing what was going on in my life and "catching up" when we did talk or have time together. I have wonderful memories of going on walks with him, playing games with him, and him pushing me on my tree swing for endless hours in my front yard. With that being said, I didn't see the burst of emotion that overwhelmed me while attending his funeral today.

It began with looking into the eyes of my grandmother. After being by my grandfathers side for 72 years, I can not imagine the void she must feel. She told me how much she already missed him and how special he was with tears in her eyes. She told me she was glad he was in no longer suffering and that he was with Jesus. Sympathy tears.

We walked into the funeral service. I walked behind my 88 year old grandmother who slowly made her way down to the front row while pushing her walker. Once she sat down, I saw her shoulders begin to tremble....before her sat the scene below. Sad tears.

My grandfather's ashes, the american flag (missing in my photo), wonderful photo of my grandfather and his "hat". My grandfather rarely went anywhere without some type of "hat". If he were dressed up, it would probably be a cowboy hat, if it were cold maybe more of a beret style hat, or if he were casual maybe a super tall baseball style cap with a local company logo on it. Amused tears.

The service was wonderful. My dad spoke and did a great job sharing about my grandfather and his amazing faith legacy that he left for our family, his love of his family, and hope for all of our future through our savior. I can not imagine how hard it would be to stand before everyone and eulogize his own father. It would be equally hard to sit and be silent. He displayed great strength today. Proud tears.

I sat on a row between my sister and brothers. Did not expect my brothers to shed tears at all really. Not sure why...but probably because they are tall, big outdoors-y boys! At several points in the service, they were pretty choked up too. I knew what they were feeling. Comradery tears.

At one point the choir sang Amazing Grace. Wonderful song. They were an older choir (my grandparents attend a church with an entirely elderly congregation). The song was going verse by verse as expected. Then it broke into Chris Tomlin's My Chains Are Gone. Did NOT see that coming...as that is rather contemporary...and contemporary they are not. Wouldn't even think they had ever even heard the song. They sang it with passion and volume! Just thinking about my Grandpa and his first few days in heaven! His chains ARE gone! Happy tears.

After the service, we went outside for a 21 gun salute. They presented my grandmother with an American Flag to recognize my Grandpa's service to his country. Grateful tears.

After the service, there was a visitation for people to pay their respects to my grandmother. My and my sibs found a bench over out of the way to sit on. Before you knew it, we had our own line of people coming by to share words with us about our Grandpa. One man told about how he served the church so faithfully. Another told us about how he and my Grandma served the Helping Hands store and were there longest serving volunteers. Many shared that he was just a wonderful friend...always willing to help out. Blessed tears.

Here are some pics of pics that were displayed.

This one is probably one of the last take of Grandma and Grandpa together.

Wonder where I get my big calves?!

Big cowboys fans! Love this part of his legacy! Check out Whitten on the TV!

Grandpa worked for Sears his entire career. Started in the repair services department and worked his way up to Regional Services Manager in Dallas. He was over this fleet of service techs. This photo was in the newspaper for this big Sears store Grand Opening. Those vans are SO cool! Grandpa is in the middle in the suit.

Lifetime Love

I love you Grandpa. Thank you for setting an amazing example for your 3 children, 8 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren and 2 great great grandchildren.

A few random memories I wanted to note:

Grandpa took amazing care of EVERYTHING he owned! Demonstrated the most in his automobiles. He would wash his Cadillac before he drove to our house and then pretty much as soon as he arrived at our house. He had to get the road dirt off. Even though he was going to be driving it back home just several days later. The inside was always kept clean and "cozy" too....I remember there being throw pillows in the back seat of the car! ??
He was classy....character and style. I was at his house last summer. I was looking for something and opened his closet door. An entire closet full of dress suits hung and lined up immaculately with every color of dress boots lined up neatly underneath. I had no idea he had that many.
Sweet, sweet. I remember them buying us gifts from the helping hands store because they would see something that they just thought looked like something we would like. Grandma and Grandpa traveled overseas extensively after he retired. They started bringing me dolls dressed in local attire back from every county they visited. To this day, one of the only "collections" I own. And one that is pretty hard to come by! I just showed it to my kids last summer. They LOVED it! Just until the last several years, there was not a birthday that went by that I did not receive a card from them with a handwritten multi-page letter. You just don't get many of those these days!

The church pastor shared that the first thing Grandma said to him when he saw her that morning before the funeral... on one of the toughest days of her 88 year old life... was "It's going to be a great day." May I learn from her. I hope that on the hardest days of my life...because of the faith heritage that has been handed down to me and that I have made my own...that I can always say "It's going to be a great day."
Til I see you again Grandpa!

Me and my sibs at dinner the night we got into town. Had to have a picture of this! This is the first time the 4 of us have EVER gone together by ourselves...without spouse or children. Beforehand, Landry joked that we were going to find out if we really even liked each other! We must...because we stayed at the table for almost 3 hours! So much fun! Wish we were closer so we could do this more often! Was a treat! Love you Steph, Lange and Brade! Proud to be your sister!