Riding the Waves

It has been a rough couple of weeks on Justin's side of the family. His sister left for Marine boot camp last week. She will have no communication with anyone for another few weeks. Personally, I cannot imagine having zero contact with family for that long. Not to mention, I have heard some scary boot camp stories. But, supposedly since she is in the officer's training program versus the entry level program, they are a little less rough on the enlistees (not physically but mentally).

And, right about the same time as Katie left, Justin's grandpa passed away. He had suffered from a second stroke and just could not recover from it. So, Friday we headed up to the North Shore of Lake Superior for the memorial service.

This was a hard death to deal with as Bob was such a kind man. Justin and I were talking the other night about how he was one of those people that never said anything bad about ANYONE and likewise you never heard anyone say anything negative about him. You know, there are just a handful of those people out there. That is one quality I really admire, the old "treat others as you would like to be treated." Such a golden rule.

Anyway, in addition to being a wonderful family man, Bob was a talented artist. He did drawings, woodworking, stained glass... Justin and I are lucky to have one of his infamous fish mobiles hanging in our living room. We think of him and his kindness everytime we look toward that corner of our home.


Grandpa Bob loved the outdoors. Justin told me that he did not want to lye in a hospital bed any unnecessary amount of time but would rather be pushed out in a canoe into the great lake in his back yard. When looking out over that big huge lake this past weekend I like to picture him out there riding the waves in his canoe,


smiling at all of those grandkids (and great grandkids)!