1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
It has been almost five weeks since Grandpa’s exit to Life.
Homesick
Mercy Me
You’re in a better place, I’ve heard a thousand times
And at least a thousand times I’ve rejoiced for you
But the reason why I’m broken, the reason why I cry
Is how long must I wait to be with you
I close my eyes and I see your face
If home’s where my heart is then I’m out of place
Lord, won’t you give me strength to make it through somehow
I’ve never been more homesick than now
Help me Lord cause I don’t understand your ways
The reason why I wonder if I’ll ever know
But, even if you showed me, the hurt would be the same
Cause I’m still here so far away from home
I close my eyes and I see your face
If home’s where my heart is then I’m out of place
Lord, won’t you give me strength to make it through somehow
I’ve never been more homesick than now
In Christ, there are no goodbyes
And in Christ, there is no end
So I’ll hold onto Jesus with all that I have
To see you again
To see you again
And I close my eyes and I see your face
If home’s where my heart is then I’m out of place
Lord, won’t you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won’t you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won’t you give me strength to make it through somehow
I’ve never been more homesick than now
Everyone was glad Mom and Joe went. Everyone was also glad to have them back.
Dad, Ben, Elle Janie, and I ended up going; we left on the 19th, sometime after 8pm. We left at night, so the baby would sleep! Which she did; she actually did very good.
Our kind dentist loaned us a Buick Park Avenue, a few years old but awfully nice. Mom didn’t think Dad would take Dr. Wagner up on his offer, but the dentist phrased it somewhat like this (I wasn’t there to get the exact words, but I guess this is a paraphrase!):
Dr. Wagner: I have this car that really misses Portland.
Dad: Oh ok, you need it dropped off?
Dr. Wagner: No, it wants to come home after a few days.
Well, it was a really nice car and we took it. It had so many bells and whistles that I’d never heard of! The windshield sensed rain and turned the wipers on automatically. There was a head’s up display that showed the mph on the windshield. It was really comfy. Anyway, the dentist wasn’t joking. As soon as we got into Oregon, the windshield wipers started going enthusiastically! All by themselves. It was funny!
When we got into town we went to Grandma Kathy’s. Aunt Laurie was looking through pictures because they were making poster boards with pictures of Grandpa on them. Joe let me look through pictures he had on his camera. Here’s some from the two and a half weeks he was there without us (minus the food pictures, which will come another time!):
Grandma Kathy in the hospice
Joe while driving
Paul (left) and John
Mom
A very picturesque picture of the river to which I added a few effects
Papa making Mom and Joe breakfast
Joe’s reflection (I thought it was picturesque!) in a birdhouse hubcap…birdhouses were made out of different things; this one was made out of VW Bug parts
Mom (right, in the blue skirt) and Aunt Laurie doing puzzles in the hospice
Paul (left) and John
Left to right: Joe, Gramma Kathy, Mom, Aunt Laurie looking at the pictures for the posters
We had lunch at Grandma Kathy’s, and looked through pictures and stuff.
Mom and Elle Janie who was so glad to see Mom that…(see next picture)
…she orbited around Mom! She kept her hand on Mom and walked around her in a circle for a long time, not letting go!
Dad rocking out with his acoustic guitar!
Dad and I
Dad, Aunt Laurie, Mom, Elle Janie, and Ben looking at pictures
Me writing as always! This is what I was doing while they were looking at pictures
Later on went to Grammoo and Papa’s for dinner. We got there about six. Grammoo made us an awesome roast dinner, with all the milk we could drink. We (the six of us; Grammoo and Papa don’t drink milk) drank a whole gallon at the one dinner!
Dad read a few Pat McManus stories. He got a few Pat McManus books as a surprise for when we went hunting, then we didn’t go!
Friday we got up at 7…Grammoo made breakfast (hash browns, which Joe made; bacon AND sausage, and blueberry muffins). After breakfast, we left to the Mausoleum to see Grandpa interned.
We were the first at mausoleum (after thinking we were late, we were early!) so we waited for Grandma Kathy and family. Aunt Jeanie and Uncle Earl came too. Grandma Kathy’s dad (who I guess is our great-grandpa Peterson!…he was only three years older than Grandpa, actually) came and Grandma Kathy’s oldest and youngest sisters Karen and Paula (respectively). We realized they are our aunts!
Anyway. Once everyone came we went inside and stood in the entry way, then went and sat down in a little living room thing. After a while a man came with the urn, and we followed him out to the mausoleum.
The earliest date we saw was 1914. The walls and fronts where the caskets and urns went was marble. Some spaces were caskets in sideways; some were in longways, with their ‘head’ showing. Grandpa’s is in one of the longways places because Grandma Kathy wants to be in a casket, so she will be interned with him when she dies.
We followed the mausoleum man through the halls and to the elevator, then up a floor, and to the open crypt. The square marble slab was off. It reminds me of that one verse where Jesus compared the Pharisees to a white washed sepulcher. That’s what it was! The marble and brass and ornate finishings merely were decorations for the concealing of dead people. It was a weird thought.
The man put the urn gently in the cavity, and let us say words. Dad read the passage from 1 Thessalonians, and Grandpa Peterson told us about this song, something about seeing Jesus in people, and he said he saw Jesus in grandpa, there was no doubt. Then we all said the Lord’s Prayer, and kind of stood around. Grandma Kathy went around and hugged everyone. Then Mom asked the guy if we could see where her mom and brother were interned. Entombed? Encrypted?
Anyways. So he asked the desk and got directions and we saw their crypts. On another nearby wall were Grandpa’s folks, in caskets. We stood there for a while. I couldn’t help thinking of the state of the bodies. Grandpa’s parents were in the sideways caskets, so the bodies were there, whole, instead of ashes. I thought I should feel creeped out to be surrounded by dead bodies, even if they were behind marble, but I didn’t…but I thought if I were alone, at night, perhaps I would have been creeped out…especially if there was a creepy guy chasing me around! That would be scary!!
After looking for a bit, we left. Everyone except us, Aunt Jeanie, and Uncle Earl left; we talked to them, then they went home and we went to Grandma Kathy’s. We weren’t there very long, then we went to the church. When Leo got there (he is…a family friend) we practiced playing “In the Garden” which we were performing at the memorial service later on. Leo played a 12 string guitar; Joe and Dad played guitar, and I played piano. Leo had actually never played it before, the song, but he did great.
After practicing we hung out until the service.
Aunt Jeanie had reserved three pews for family, but we ended up using seven! Aunt Jeanie’s sister and brother and their spouses were there too (along with her unmarried older sister); and Grammoo and Papa, Uncle David, Aunt Fran, and Cody; and Uncle Pat, Aunt Laurie, Nick and Amanda came…we hadn’t seen them (besides Aunt Laurie) in forever! The service was really nice, and afterwards was a cookie reception.
Dad, the tall dark and handsome
Leo, who played guitar with us
Me
Left to Right, Aunt Karen, Aunt Paula, and Grandpa Peterson
Left to Right: Mom, Aunt Laurie, Aunt Karen, Grandma Kathy, Aunt Paula
My cousins Amanda and Nick
Uncle Hap (Grandpa’s brother’s wife’s sister’s husband)
Papa
After the reception was a private dinner, served at Grandma Kathy’s, so we went there. Some ladies they knew prepared an awesome chicken/broccoli casserole!
Grandpa Peterson, one of the neatest, Godliest men you could hope to know
Aunt Jo (Uncle Hap’s wife; she is Grandpa’s brother Earl’s wife Jeanie’s sister)
Aunt Paula holding pies
One of my very cool brothers…Ben!
Aunts and Uncles…left to right, Uncle Earl (Grandpa’s brother), Aunt Jeanie, Uncle Hap, Aunt Jo, Aunt Shirley (Aunt Jeanie’s oldest sister), and Aunt Verna and Uncle Harley
Uncle Harley
Aunt Verna
Left to right, cousin Nick, Uncle Pat, Aunt Laurie, and Uncle Pat’s mom (Amanda had to go back home)
Paul
Aunt Jo and I (I’m really not taller than her!)
Aunt Jo and eeek who’s that face?!?
Me
After that we went back to Grammoo and Papa’s. I had a hard time getting out the door…I was saying goodbye to Grandpa Peterson (who is only about my height!), and he was like “Here, I have to show you something!” after I’d hugged him. He dug around in his wallet…and pulled out a family picture of US! Joe had given it to him! He was tickled to learn he had twelve grandchildren he didn’t even know about! He started bragging on us (while I was there) to Aunt Karen, who’d already heard all of it. “They make their own knives and bullets, and play music…!” he was going on and on. He showed me also a laminated paper with his other grandchildrens’ names and birthdates on, and said Grandma Kathy would make him another one with our names and birthdates on it. He hadn’t even met the rest of the kids!
Finally I said I really had to go, otherwise my family would leave me behind! I even got called a social butterfly, which was a first, because I can be pretty anti-social! Maybe I was just acting…
Anyway, we were going to leave first thing in the morning, but it was late, and we didn’t feel like packing the van, so we decided to leave second thing in the morning…which turned out (after a big breakfast and a lot of packing) to be about 10:30 am!
We got home at 2 am…stayed up for half an hour telling some of the stories and stuff…then went to bed.
Here’s a final picture of Grandpa Peterson and Grandpa…and a funny story about Grandpa.
When we came in June, a lot of the times someone else and I would help Grandpa stand, as he had a little trouble having enough ‘ooph’ to get out of his chair. Sometimes he would be a little wobbly, and we’d hold him until his legs were strong enough to walk.
One time he was being wobbly after we helped him; kind of bending his knees and stuff.
“Are you ok?” we were asking him, rather worried.
“I’m just doing my exercises!” he said.
Grandpa Peterson and Grandpa…two of the best men I’ve ever known
If you love God, you will do what He says. If He says to love your neighbor, you will. If you love your neighbor, you will be looking out for his better interest above yours. If you love your neighbor, you won’t be focussing on yourself. If you love your neighbor, you can look past his faults to see a creation of God’s who needs the Truth, no matter if the Truth seems harsh.
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