Grandpa Draper

My Grandpa passed away last week. Sadly, I wasn't able to make it back to Utah for the funeral today. Fortunately, I was able to say goodbye to him while I was in Utah a few days before he passed. I'm grateful that I was able to see him one last time.

While I was at his house, I saw the above picture sitting on the coffee table. It brought tears to my eyes. I knew my cute Grandpa had changed over the past several years, but I hadn't realized how much. This picture brought back so many memories for me. I remember all of the fun gadgets grandpa always had. He had the coolest banks that he would let us play with. One of the banks was like a slot machine and we thought that was great, but my favorite had a little hand that would come out and steal your coin.

Grandpa also had and endless supply of little cards for us to color. On the cards was a picture of a guy and his broken down car. I have no idea why that appealed to us so much when we were children, but we loved using his permanent markers to color those cards. We never got sick of them. I have no idea where he got them, but they were always there, no matter how many we colored.

Grandpa worked at Chevron and we always got to go to his Chevron parties. There was always a picnic and swimming and games. I looked forward to that every year (until I got to my ridiculous tween phase and thought I was too cool).

Grandpa was in the Navy and loved to tell us stories and show us his pictures. I wasn't too interested when I was young, but the older I got, the more I liked to look at those pictures and listen to his stories.

I'm proud to call him Grandpa and will miss him a lot. I know he is happier now that he is no longer in pain and he has his amazing memory back.

I love you Grandpa!