Lolo/Grandpa

Life always brings different twists and sometimes the results are harder to bear than others. Last night, Frendell's grandfather died. Frendell is understandably very sad and was up all night.  I finally asked him to come to bed @ 5 a.m. as he's been up all night trying to get things ready with both churches and for the tour as we will be going to Winnipeg tomorrow for the funeral. Even though Lolo is 98 and has had some health issues in the past several years, it does not take away the sting of knowing that he is gone. I never had the opportunity to grow up with any of  my grandparents, so it was a treat for me to be adopted in the family by Frendell's grandparents when we married 17 years ago. My main memories of Lolo were of him baking Frendell's favorite pie, lemon meringue.. and also gardening outside Mom & Dad's house in Westmont... and I remember him trying to salvage the sapin-sapin we had brought back from Winnipeg. He loved to pray and I remember the grandkids sometimes groaning when he would start, as he may end up praying for several long minutes. He had a very lovely smile and even though he was a bit hard of hearing the past several years, he was alert to everything around him and you can see him looking around and checking everyone out when we were all together.

We were all in Winnipeg last August 2008, where the whole family gathered together and we  went to Kenora, Ontario to spend time at a cabin by the Lake of the Woods. It was a very memorable time for all of us, as we knew our time with him was running out. We honored them and their place in our family and we reminisced about different memories we have of them. It was on this trip that i discovered the lump on my breast that would eventually be diagnosed as cancer.

This week, we will say good-bye to Lolo. He has lived a long and productive life. He was a chef/baker for so many years and often times would not be home with his family as his job would not allow him to be gone for long periods of time. He is known in the family as the baker and I know Winnchee inherited his love for baking. I've often wished Frendell got this gene as well, but alas, it was not meant to be. He did love eating his grandpa's lemon meringue pie and often he would tell me stories of Lolo baking apple, rhubarb and lemon meringue pies when they all still lived in Winnipeg.

Death is inevitable... are we prepared for it? Our hearts are sad because we will miss Lolo but we are looking forward to the day when we can all be reunited with him when Jesus comes. For "God shall wipe all tears"...

good-bye for now, Lolo and we will meet you in the clouds of heaven someday soon... we love you