John David Bennett Sr.

My maternal grandfather, John David Bennett Sr, passed away early in the morning on June 5th, 2013. It was unexpected. He had just gotten released from the hospital the day before, with the expectations for him to get some rest and begin physical therapy. He was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, but was hospitalized due to organ failure. His doctor believed he had a lot of life left to live, and that he contained the ability to fight the diseases and ailments of his body. From the details that had been shared with me, and my knowledge of the type of person my grandfather was, I believe he had the strength, but not the will or desire. The few hours I was able to see him in the hospital, he was miserable. He didn't look like my papa. And it definitely hurt and was emotional to see him in so much pain. It is my personal believe that he chose to pass on, to enter into a peaceful rest and return to live with our Father in Heaven. I am of course saddened that he is gone, but I am comforted that he is no longer suffering. Over the past few years I have not had as many opportunities to be with him, but I do have the faith and assurance that I will see him again. He will be dearly missed, and I am so grateful for the memories and stories I have of him.

Although he didn't want any sort of funeral services, my mom and her siblings felt that some sort of viewing should be held, and my aunt really wanted to open the floor up for anyone to share a story or memory about my papa. I'll be honest, when I heard this I thought it was a terrible idea. "Open mics" do not usually go well. But to a great surprise, it ended up being wonderful. I am thankful for women from my grandparents' ward that came and watched all of our children so that we could go and listen. It surprised me to hear stories of my grandfather being "talkative" and "social," as those are words that I would not associate with him. There were some great stories from other religious leaders from other faiths that he associated with when he was Bishop, and from co-workers, pigeon friends, and of course some great sports and card stories. 

My grandfather loved to play cards, especially Hearts. As young children, we would always make pauses in our playings to watch the adults play a game of Hearts. When we got old enough to sit still, sometimes we would be allowed to sit on our parent's lap, or next to them while they played. Of course, the right of passage was being able to actually play a round with Papa. I know I had my turn, but I also remember being so scared to play Papa; he's not the best loser. :) In fact, he's a card thrower. Joe is pretty proud of the fact that in the one game of Hearts that he played my Papa, Joe won. 

My papa raised pigeons. I remember one time when he had a pigeon show up in Sacramento, and my mom and I went and met him there. He loved his pigeons. 

My papa loved sports. Especially basketball. But I know he also loved baseball and football.

My papa was a navigator* in the Air Force, and served 3 tours in Vietnam. He didn't really like to talk about it, but at the viewing some people shared experiences when they would talk about their war experiences with my grandfather.

*I always thought my Papa was a pilot, and not a navigator. 

I know I have heard that term used, 

but I guess I thought it was the same thing. 

Apparently, it's not. Oops!

When I was little, Papa did lots of wrestling and rough-housing with us. He would put us in the "boobee box," give us "nellie bellies" (what most people call raspberries) on our stomaches, and called us "toofus magoofus" when we lost our teeth. I remember him swimming with us when they had a pool, and throwing us into the water. He loved chocolate and oranges, and ice cream. I learned to love Cherry 7Up from him; he always had cans of it at his house. He loved to do a float with it and chocolate ice cream, not vanilla. 

I loved how every Christmas Papa would sit in "his" chair and read the story from the Bible, while we would dress up and "act" out the Nativity story. And I love how it was Papa's job to pass out the presents. 

When I came to visit my grandparents after my mission, I was only able to stay for a few days because I had to get home for spinal treatment. It had been a really long time since I had been with them all by myself. I mostly chatted with Grandma, since Papa had to work. But we played some cards and enjoyed meals together. My grandparents spoke in Sacrament Meeting the Sunday I was visiting, and I remember my papa sharing how proud of me he was for serving a mission, even tho it had been so difficult for me. On my last day there, he so badly wanted to take me out to dinner, so we went to a brand new restaurant that was opening in their small town. Unfortunately, it was their "friends and family" night of their grand opening, so we weren't able to stay and eat. (The manager was really nice and gave us complimentary meal tickets to come back the next day.) Instead we ended up at the "regular" restaurant for dinner (they live in a REALLY small town, which is growing some (definitely bigger than Bridgeport), but there weren't many options for dining.) Still, I remember it being a wonderful meal and time spent together. The next morning, before he left for work, I overheard him say to my grandma, "Does she really have to go?" 

I love the picture I have of me dancing with my papa at my wedding. I'm grateful to know that he was a part of my baby blessing, my baptism and confirmation. He came up when I received my Young Women's Medallion, and for my Jr High and High School graduations. He was with me in the temple when I received my endowments before leaving on my mission. He was there when I came home from my mission. He was in the temple with me when I was sealed to Joe. He was in the temple with me when Brek was sealed to us, and he was part of Brek's baby blessing too. There are many wonderful moments and memories, and I am so grateful for them, and I'm grateful I have eternity to be his granddaughter.

Since my grandfather served in the military, he chose to be buried in a Veteran's Cemetery. It was a really neat experience.

My mom gave the Eulogy. She had it all memorized, and did an amazing job!

From where I was standing, I wasn't able to see when the flag was presented to my grandma.
Still, a really neat thing to hear.

This was all I caught of the guns for the salute. 

My dad gave the dedication of the grave, which was also a very sweet experience.

Of course, after the service we had a family luncheon. There was a display of some pictures and things of my grandfather's. The kids all enjoyed Papa's airplane "rocking horse."

Aurora

Brek tried to get on and "share" with Aurora. She was less than pleased.

Just cute pictures of my niece Amy

Aurora found the desert table and sat underneath it, and would come up and grab a cookie for each hand. She sat there and ate cookies for at least 20 minutes. It was so dang cute!

It was wonderful to get to gather together to remember and honor my grandfather. One of the really special things about it was that all my family was able to be together. My sister and her family drove 30 hours from Chicago to be there. We don't all get to be together very often, so we took the opportunity to take a family picture.

And we had Grandma join us too.

Adventures in California, Part 3: The rest of Southern California

The first week of being in California was actually spent in Southern California, where my grandparents and aunts and uncles on my mom's side of the family live. We spent the majority of our vacation time there when we were growing up. Since I went away to college, I really haven't spent much time there, for various reasons. It ended up being a good visit.

Our very 1st stop, even before Disneyland, was actually for my cousin Megan's baptism. She turned 8 in April. It was nice to be able to be there to support her and the good decisions she is making in her life. It was definitely a day to remember - she pouted a good majority of the day, which is sad because it is such a special day. But alas, I'm thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that enables us to become better and make changes when we have days like that. Here's a picture of all of us that were able to be there: Left to right: My grandparents, my parents, Dustin and Tracy, me down on the floor with Amy, Adelynne is to the left. Then my aunt Michelle and cousin JD in back, with my cousin Ty in front, next to me. Then it's my aunt's parents. Megan is there in the pretty white dress. The far right is my cousin Jordan and my uncle Keith.

Other happenings: While attending Disneyland and the beach we stayed at my aunt Jill's house. Her husband Chris gave this fun thing to my nieces. We had fun with it the whole vacation.

Here's Amy all ready to leave Aunt Jill's house and go to Grandma Great's (aka my grandma).

We then spent a couple days at my grandparent's house. Most of the family came up on Sunday to spend the day too, so we were able to see my aunts and cousins again. My grandma was so sweet and got me a cake to celebrate my birthday. I was really excited. I haven't had a "party" of any sort for my birthday in what seemed like ages. Last year I was struggling with depression and Joe let me celebrate it just the 2 of us. It was fun to be sung to and have so much family there too.

The cake was delicious. I got 24 of the 26 candles out in the first breath.

Here's the cake. I got the yellow flower, and Megan and Adelynne got the other 2. It was rich and chocolatey.

Here's me and my aunt Michelle. She's a hoot!

Here's Megan and Adelynne and Amy playing on their Leapsters. Amy isn't crying in this picture, just in case you were wondering. She's laughing.

I guess during the past few years where I haven't been to my grandparents' house in some time, my grandpa acquired this cool rocking "horse" airplane. He was a pilot in the airforce. I thought it was awesome.

I tried really hard to get some pictures of Adelynne on it. She was a bit of a punk, but very funny. I don't remember how we finally got these out of her. She's such a beauty.

Then she went all model for us. I love these pictures!

It was a great trip down south. I really enjoyed seeing my grandparents, my aunts, uncles, and cousins too.