Papa

Ryan has been wanting to make a stepping stone in honor of Papa to put in the cemetery. Papa loved to fish. Ryan loves to fish. So Ryan made a fishing inspired stepping stone with some of Papa's lures and we shared some of our favorite Papa moments.

Papa was the best at sitting and swinging. Nana said the other day she could hear his voice saying, Why don't you just sit and stay awhile? as she left the cemetery on Memorial Day. I never saw him in a hurry. It's getting harder to remember him exactly as he was. So I'm becoming more and more thankful for times when we tell stories and remember him. Remembering feeding the squirrels, picking veggies from their amazing garden, his instant coffee (now that I'm a coffee drinker I don't know how he drank that stuff), his big green chair, and my favorite, when he whispered in my ear that as he watched me get baptized it "brought a tear to his eye." I love playing his mandolin. I try to imagine him playing it and it makes me smile. 

Ryan said the sinkers in the stone are there because, "Papa told me that if you put sinkers on your line you can cast twice as far. And it's true. It really works."