Grandpa You Will Be Missed

My great grandpa passed away this past Friday at about 2:40pm. He was 91 years old and he and my grandmother have been together for 67 years. My grandma and grandpa always went everywhere together and were VERY close. At about 1:00pm on that Friday afternoon I went on my daily walk in the park with my friend Candice, of course I had my daughter with me. After our walk, I decided that I needed a few things from the store so I headed to Wal-Mart. I spent about 45 minutes in Wal-Mart and then checked out and headed back to my car. I buckled Macy into her seat and then buckled myself into my driver seat. I reached over and pulled a vitamin water out of one of the grocery bags and took a big swig of it. I started the car and I pulled out to go over to the gas pumps to pump some gas into my car. As I pulled out of my parking space and headed toward the pumps, my cell phone started ringing. I looked down to see who it was and realized that it was my granny. I picked it up and said, "Hello". All I could hear on the other end of the line was my granny sobbing into the phone. I couldn't really understand her so I had to ask her what was wrong and all I could understand was that she kept saying, "Holly, please get over here quick!", so I skipped the gas pump and hurried towards her house. I had never heard my grandmother so upset like this, so I knew that something bad had happened and in the back of my mind I already knew what it was, and that was that my grandpa just died. As I drove over to her house, I began to wonder where my grandma Barbara was, because she had been over there with granny since last night, since grandpa's health condition was so bad and we thought he may pass in the middle of the night. Grandpa's health started to decline a few months ago and about a month ago they sent him home from the hospital saying that there was nothing more that they could do, because he was just to old and his heart was starting to fail. Thursday night we all went to visit him, because his oxygen tank was all the way up and he was having little heart attacks all day, so he was at a point to where he wasn't able to be out of bed anymore and we all thought that that would be the last time we saw him, because we thought he wasn't gonna make it through the night. He did make it through the night, however, he didn't make it through the next day. Anyway, I made it over to my granny's house and pulled the baby out of the car and hurried inside. I sat the baby on the living room floor and gave her some toys to play with and then went to go find granny, according to the sobs I figured she was in the back of the house in her bedroom. I went down the hall and went into her room and there she was clutching onto grandpa's dead body, screaming and sobbing. I went over and wrapped my arms around her and just let her cry and say what she needed to say. All she kept saying was that grandpa said he couldn't breathe and that she was trying to help him and that they oxygen tank was up as high as it would go and there wasn't anything she could do to save him. She then started sobbing and leaned over grandpa again and started screaming, "Charlie, why did you have to leave me?!" and "I love you Charlie, come back to me!" It hurt me so much to see my granny like this, so I started crying to. I hugged onto granny for a second and then she started asking me if I could try to call grandma Barbara. I said I would and I tried to call her. She didn't answer so I called my dad and told him what was going on. My dad lives 6 hours away, so I told him that I couldn't get a hold of grandma Barbara and asked dad if he would continue to try and get a hold of her for me while I call Aunt Terry and figure out what to do about the situation that I was delt with just then. Dad said he would keep trying to call Barbara and that he was on his way to come down here. After I hung up the phone with my dad, I didn't even have to call Aunt Terry, because she was calling me. I picked up the phone and told her what was going on. She said she was on her way and that I needed to stay there with granny, because she was calling the police to come over there. I told her okay and got off the phone. No sooner had I hung up with Aunt Terry, the police were rounding the corner. I went back to granny's room to explain to her what was going on. She started freaking out and kept asking, "Holly, what are they gonna do to him?" I told her to calm down and that they just wanted to take a look at him and determine that he was indeed deceased. She said okay and I took her hand and led her down the hallway so that the emergency teams could do their job. They finally determined that he was indeed deceased and then asked me for his identification and a medical card. I went and found what they needed and then they asked which funeral home to call. I turned and asked granny who I was supposed to call and she started sobbing and screaming that she didn't want them to take grandpa anywhere. She then got up and ran back to her bedroom to prevent anyone from taking him anywhere. I turned to the cheif of police and at that moment the phone rang. I picked it up and it was my dad telling my that he got a hold of grandma Barbara and that she would be there in 15 minutes. I then turned to the cheif of police and told him not to take grandpa anywhere and that my grandma would be there shortly to make the funeral decisions. He said that was fine and that they wouldn't touch grandpa until the decision was made by my grandma Barbara where he was supposed to go. I then ran back to find granny and let her know that nobody was gonna take him anywhere, so that way she would calm down a little bit. After a while, grandma Barbara got there and gave the police the information they needed in order to know what was going to be done with grandpa. Grandma Barbara called the funeral place that her and my two aunt's had choosen and they came with their herse. My Aunt Terry and Aunt Wendy were about an hour away from getting there so my grandma Barbara told the funeral people not to take grandpa with them until my Aunt's got there to say there good-bye's. The funeral people were very nice and went back to the bedroom to straighten grandpa up so that way he was more presentable for people to come back and pay their respects. In between waiting for my Aunt's to get there, several other members of my family came to hug on granny and say their good-bye's to grandpa before they took him to the funeral home. After my Aunt's got there, they paid their respects to grandpa and then went to console my granny. The funeral men loaded grandpa onto a stretcher and let my granny have one more good-bye before they loaded him into the herse and took him to the funeral parlor. My Aunt's then told me to order a bunch of pizza's from Pizza Hut and have them delivered so that we could spend this time with granny. I did what she told me and ordered 4 large pizza's and 3 different 2 liter soda's. The pizza arrived and granny didn't want to eat anything, since she was so upset and still sobbing. Later that night I called to check on my granny and told her to get some rest and that it was going to be alright and that grandpa is in a better place with God now. I knew she wasn't going to get much sleep, but I wanted to tell her that anyway. This past weekend has been very sad, since everybody has been preparing for the funeral. My granny hasn't stopped sobbing and she looks so empty and sad. I wish there was some way to make her feel better, but I know there isn't. This is just something that is going to take time in order to heal. We will all miss grandpa Charlie, as he was an outstanding man. I hope that my granny will be able to pick her head up and move on, because I don't think that grandpa would have wanted her to be unhappy. Saturday, the day after grandpa died, granny had a dozen roses delivered to her. The florist said that grandpa had come up there and picked them out and paid for them and had told the florist not to deliver them until the day after he died. I thought that this was very sweet, and it sounded just like something grandpa would do in order for grandma not to be so sad about him being gone. He loved her very much and wouldn't want her to be upset for him passing away. I know granny misses him, we all do, but we have to move on with our lives and trust that God is taking care of him now. One day granny will see him again in Heaven and I know that she will be at peace then. Grandpa, you were a wonderful man and will be missed dearly. May you rest in peace and may God always take care of you. I hope that he has provided you with lots of Pheasants to hunt up there in those clouds, because we know how much you loved pheasant hunting! Anyway, thank you for reading this blog, because he ment a great deal to our family. I will be attending his funeral tomorrow, Tuesday, so please keep us in your thoughts! Thank you!