Memorial Day

My Mom's three brothers Wayne , Keith and Tom followed by my Dad.

64 years ago...

A young couple snuck off to Elko, Nevada to elope. There they met up with a Justice Of the Peace who just happened to be a hunchback. All he really even seen of this very young couple were the shoes that they wore. In fact he remembered the shoes so well that when my Dad and Mom returned to Elko to be witnesses at another elopement about a month later the Justice of the Peace said "I think I recognize those shoes".
Even though Dad is gone I can not help but think about them both today.
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad.



This is the wall quilt I made for them on their 50th wedding anniversary the link to the quilt and its meaning is here.

http://whitey-skunkhollow.blogspot.com/2008/08/golden-wedding-anniversary-quilts.html

April 15, 2010

GO REST HIGH ON THAT MOUNTAIN (click on name)

















What a great day it was to go to the cemetery to decorate Dad's grave. Kacy, Hadley and Wesley Ann came with a home made flower bouquet. Hadley has a hard time understanding where my Dad is when Kacy told her he was in heaven she replied with what she heard and now calls my Dad "Grandpa Kevin" or grandpa in heaven. As I was getting the metal vase up to put flowers in Hadley was watching me so I started talking to my Dad with a bewildered look on her face she asked me who I was talking to, I told her my Dad. When I tried to explain to her that he was buried there she said "No he will be here in a minute he will come down that road" and she pointed the way. It was simply sweet! Kyle showed up with a token also, every guys needs some fishing bait on the other side. Wesley had fun with the plastic wrap listening to it crackle as she scrunched it up. We had some extra visitors that came hopping by also.

Remembering My Dad

Ruth Spencer

Ruth was one of my dad's older sisters do not know much about her other than she took good care of my Dad when he was young. She had died around the age of 18 she had worked out side in the heat of a summer day and had gotten sun burned. I was told that she had died because of it. Dad lost another sister when she was about 8 due to a bad heart and another baby was born dead due to a bad delivery.The heartache my Grandmother had to endure.
Ruth had started to take art classes and for some reason she took my dad along with her he was around the age of seven. The art teacher let my dad participate in the class , he would draw his art on the back of recycled cardboard boxes.As far as I know this the only thing we have of Ruth's.
Another story tells about Ruth is taking him to the zoo it was a day of fun for my Dad he really appreciated the fact that she took time just for him.















































His father was a hard man I guess you could say birthdays, holidays were never made special. So for Christmas I took Dad's art work and framed it up for him. I get such a chuckle when I had called my friend to come down to look at the art my Dad had done as a child. She had envisioned the usual scribblings of a child and could not figure out why I had gone to such bother, well I bet you can see why now. When Dad opened up the gift the first thing he said was "I think I painted these pictures"

August 7, 1928

Something about a guy who is not afraid to wear pink!! Wishing you a Heavenly Birthday Dad.

My favorite picture of Payton and Dad taken on his 75th birthday.

Happy Father's Day Arthur

Happy Fathers Day to my Father-in-Law, these are some words that I think describes that man that he is. He has always treated me well , love you Dad.









This is a picture of Dennis being held by his Father getting his first hair by Dennis's grandfather Clifford. As you can see by below the tradition carried on with my sons JD and Jared. Check out the wall paper in the background!























Dennis holding JD





















Me entertaining Jared with JD and Dennis in background .

Father's Day

I am the wind
I am the rain
I am the sunlight
through your window pane

I am the leaf
turning brown in the fall
I am the faintest whisper
on the breeze when you call
I am the snowflake
that kisses your cheek

I am the child in the park
playing hide 'n' go seek
I'm the scent of the flowers
that fills the spring air

I'm all around you
I'm every where
I'll always be with you
from this moment on
In your every dance
your every song

You see when we move on
we never truly die
We become one with nature
we unify

Take care my precious one
on my passing don't dwell
Remember the love
we shared together
See you again someday,
All is well

www.messagesofsympathy.com

Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.
Ruth E. Renkel

Memorial Day

In Our Hearts

We thought of you with love today

but that is nothing new.

We thought about you yesterday

and the days before that , too.

We think of you in silence.

We often speak your name.

Now all we have are memories,

and your picture in a frame.

Your memory is our keepsake

With which we'll never part.

God has you in His keeping.

We have you in our hearts.

Author unknown

Death & Taxes

It's the two things in life you can count on and for the last two years April 15th marks the anniversary day of my Dad's death, two years have gone by. I am sitting here tonight with the window open the sun has gone down but I can hear the birds chirping like crazy as if they are trying to convince me that spring is really here.

SPRING
a season of growth
to move forward

CONTINUE
to begin or go on
after an interruption

RESTART
to pick up
renew

BIRTH
becoming alive
creation

LIFE
the
period
during
which
someone
exists

MEMORIES
an image
or impression
of one
that is
remembered







I think Dad is about 27-28 years old in this picture, four of us and a dog, and look he still has something to smile about.


On the night I was born, Udell one of Dads friend, took him out to party. When they got home (a wee bit intoxicated) Udell basically had to put Dad to bed. But hidden out of sight was on old heating pad that had been left on, Dad slept for quite awhile on top of the old heating pad since he was in such a self induced sleep, he did not noticed the burn he was receiving on his backside. It burnt a core hole very deep. To say the least it took years to finally heal, and the scar was proof that I became known as the pain in his butt!

My Dad's Hands

With my very first post that I started in June, I expressed that I was trying to get over the unexpected death of my Dad the road is getting smoother to travel, but boy do I miss the old guy.
This is a video we put together at the time of my Dad's funeral. With the rush of all the things to get done at a time like this, it got a little hectic and I gave the video to someone else to finish for me and in the process it got out of sequence so they day it played at his funeral it was okay but it was not in the order that I had wanted. Dad has been gone now 19 months, and my daughter has given me the best present ever for my birthday she has re-made and tweaked it a little for me getting it back in order. Thank you Kacy, I hope you know how much it has meant to me. We also had a audio recording of his service made that we were given copies of I keep setting a date as to which to listen to all the wonderful talks we had that day, I haven't been able to do that quite yet. Everyone that was present that day told us it was the best funeral they had been to in a long time. Yes Dad, you would have been proud of everyone, it was the best.

Listening to some of Johnny Cash's songs I came across this song that I had never heard. I could not help to think about my Dad's white hair, he turned gray at a very early age and after raising four daughters I am sure we all helped a little to speed it a long to white.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6JNK4elo7k

These Hands

The first time I heard this song was at the funeral of my friend Kathy's father. She had grown up in a small town with a big family and a father that was a hardworking man who instilled that into his children. When I heard this song I thought about my own Dad and how much these words related to him also. It was at that time I decided I needed to start taking pictures of his hands.
I have been fascinated by hands for a long time, from getting tracings of grandchildren and putting them on aprons for the grandmothers, tracing Dennis's Grandmothers hand Afton and making a replica of it using one of her old quilts.
The first Christmas after Dad had died I had this picture made up and gave them has gifts, I was not the only one who had the same idea my daughter Kacy made up a different version and those are the two pictures that I have in my Room of Memories.

Dad's Boots written by Janette

This is a poem written by my sister Janette that she posted on her blog. My daughter Kacy did the photo shop , she did four different versions. This is one of the others that I liked.

REMINISCE....to recall past experiences

He is very much on my mind today.

här′vist ā ˈmem-rē

TWO YEARS OF HARVEST
HAVE PASSED US BY
I STILL REMEMBER
THE GLEAM IN YOUR EYES
AS ALL OF THE CHILDREN
GATHERED ROUND
WITH HOPES OF A
GREAT PUMPKIN
WOULD SOON BE FOUND

HOW YOU WOULD GRIN
FROM EAR TO EAR
AS EACH CHILD
YOU WOULD TAKE
TO PICK THE ONE
THEY THOUGHT WAS GREAT

MEMORIES OF YOU
ARE PLANTED IN THIS FIELD
AND WITH EVERY
PUMPKIN PICKED
THE CHILDREN HARVEST
A MEMORY OF THE MAN
WE MISS

One Year

This was written at the time of the one year anniversary hard to believe even now.

Work boots by *JO*

This is another picture of my Dads boots that Kacy had taken that I loved.

To Dad

Birthday Cards For Great-Grandpa

Payton and Paige two of my little granddaughters made some wonderful cards for my Dad click on them so you can read them easier. You can not help but smile at their sweet little words. Then we finally got our little Haddie bug to sit still for a split second next to her is Noah, Paige and Payton. They sang Happy Birthday and had a great time.

August 7th,1928

With my very first post I discussed the fact that I was getting over my Dad's death, still trying to get over it yes it is getting a little better. Yes I am still upset about the treatment he received at the first hospital and still brings tears to my eyes when I think of what they did to him or what they did not do for him. August 7 should have been his 80th birthday. When we went to pick out his headstone we were in hope that it would be in place for his birthday and sure enough it was. I remember the day Mom called and told me we could go down to see it. All the emotion that flooded my brain and the words that started to come, this was going to make it very real that he was there. Don't know how to describe it but I was literally shaking with my thoughts of him.Yes we talked to a law firm about my Dad's case, but they are in it to make money ,they turned us down stating that most men do not live beyond 75 if he had been a younger man with children to support they would have taken the case. So basically we did not have a case other than our voices to tell our story. That is when I decided to have my cousin Heidi make us up some shirts . I call them our medic alert shirts in case we can not speak for ourselves our shirts will speak for us! At the anniversary of my Dad's death my son Kyle wore his shirt up the the ER room and had his picture taken (gotta love that kid) . When ever we wear our shirts in public people ask us why we have them , then we tell our story then they tell us their story about the treatment they or their loved ones received. I can not believe all the horror stories that come out of that ER room. I wish I would have had people signing our shirts that had bad experiences at that hospital. We know police officers and paramedics that will not let there family go there. When we went back and talked to the first medics that took care of Dad they were shocked to find out what the ER had done. I know I need to move on but I just needed to vent.



This is Heidi's art spot go check her out and her Cafe Press store hidbdesigns.blogspot.com