We'll miss you, Grandpa...
I could never write anything eloquent enough to describe my grandfather Waitt, but here is a few thoughts to pass along;
-we talked for the last time on Saturday, the 26th... Grandpa told me that he'd been doing his Christmas baking since the weather was too inclimate to go outside and putter around in his gardens. He always loved beauty.
-Grandpa valued our family above anything else in his life, with exception to his Lord. The last thing he told me was, "Hillary, take care of your family..."
-Grandpa and Grandma were tighter than any couple I've ever known. They were married almost 63 years. They lived for each other and their love shone for each other even when my grandfather would wonder off just before dinner, "Just like his mother", Grandma would say...
-Grandpa became a Christian at the age of 21 during his time in the Canadian military during WWII. Later that year, he married my grandma. The first three years of their marriage they bounced from base to base across Canada and Alaska. Eventually, the war ended and they settled in Vancouver where he worked and attended university while my grandma was at home with my dad. In the late 1950's, they moved to Ottawa for a government job but returned to Victoria after 5 years away from the ocean they loved. Grandpa and Grandma built up their home on Parker Avenue, they built Point Roberts cottage, and eventually, my dad's home (before he married my mom) in Cobble Hill. He always loved gardening and listening to his short-wave radio, and apple pie with a piece of chesse on top.
-Grandpa made sure us girls (yes, all four) had piano lessons and Chad had art lessons. He loved to hear us plunk out a song or two when he and Grandma came to visit- a little hard on the ears, I'm sure
-Grandpa loved Dan and he looked forward with such expectation and excitement for our little bundle of joy. He laughed and teased that "he'd love the baby even if he/she will be half American!"
Thank-you, God, for our Christian heritage and the promise that we'll all be together someday. What hope we have!
