Papa

Papa praying at our wedding with Nana in the background

On the morning of December 30th Jacob's Papa quietly left this world, and went to be with his Savior. Since that day I have been in almost constant thought about him. This was at first strange to me as I would not say that we had a particularly close relationship. I have a handful of very pleasant memories and infinite amount of respect. But as a granddaughter in-law (is that a word?) in a VERY large family who only spent the normal Christmas/Thanksgiving time with him, the fact that my mind continued to dwell on him after his passing was, to be frank a little odd to me. But here is the thing I may have only known Papa briefly, but I know his grandson intimately, and that connection made the difference. The values that Papa clung too: family, hard work, prayer, honesty, generosity... I see in his grandson at a very deep level daily. Papa was a hard working cranberry farmer who loved the Lord. He would share the Lord with anyone who would listen (and even those who didn't). He was generous to his family, but he was also generous to strangers. If you picked Papa up from the airport after one of his many travels to the Ukraine, he was always luggageless and holding his pants up with his hands, cause he had even given away his belt. He loved his family deeply and worked very hard to provide, protect and care for all of them. He showed Paul who showed Jacob how to love his family as well as his neighbor. He modeled hard work, loyalty and honesty even when it wasn't fun. But mostly he showed Jacob what being a man of God meant. Because of that Papa will continue to impact myself and my girls much more than those handful of memories. So I guess it really isn't strange that I am in such a reflective mode regarding him, and obvious why I will always be grateful.