On our recent trip to UT, we got to spend some time with extended family, including my 94 year old Grandpa Ray. Time with him is so treasured. He is the Patriarch of extensive posterity, and I see him as being so in tune with the needs, struggles and the joy of his posterity. I love him so.
Since Grandma passed away two years ago, Grandpa has become a very tender hearted man. He listens intently, and offers counsel with more feeling than I have ever heard from him. He misses Grandma, and has seen some ways that he could have been a better husband to her in their 69 years of marriage by validating her feelings. He longs for the day when he can do that for her when they meet again. But for now, I see that he is acting on his desire to be emotionally close with those he loves by listening and validating family members that he can influence right now. While I was visiting Utah, I was blessed to be able to be the recipient of that tender concern for my well being. I will always treasure that experience, as it is unique to this time in his life, and not something that I have seen in all my previous years of loving this dear man.
David quickly attached himself to Grandpa Ray, and they bonded by watching a basketball game together. Last summer we were driving around Anchorage and David declared, "Those mountains are so bumpy that I think they are as wrinkly as Grandpa Ray's face." This comment was made totally out of the blue, and I got such a giggle out of it!
Alina kept finding his cane tucked away in the corner, and would bring it to him. Grandpa rode with me to and from Orem for two days, with my children in the car as well. Alina was still getting used to all of the new faces she was meeting, as well as their names. Just based on me calling this man by "Grandpa" in the car, Alina caught on that this was Grandpa. When we were around her Grandpa Clifton, she still would respond to Grandpa Ray as being the man called Grandpa. That's hard to explain, but basically I was really impressed by how much Alina picked up just by listening to conversations in the car. She quietly soaks in a lot of information, and I wonder what other dots she has connected in her world just by listening and watching snippets that I think are inconsequential.
She kept going to Grandpa for help with her sunglasses that didn't seem to want to stay on her little nose.
Grandpa was absolutely delighted with interacting with this tiny great granddaughter of his. They were both having a good time!
I am so glad that my children were able to spend time with my dear Grandpa Ray, or Grandpa the Great as he is known among his 200+ great-grandchildren.
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