Heaven Sent

I'm so glad I have this treasure.  I happened to be going through a bunch of pictures from last winter and this one caught my attention.  You see, a few weeks ago Grandpa Stratton went into the hospital.  When he was in ICU, Colby and I thought a few pictures of the family would help lift his spirits and hopefully speed up his recovery.  I found all kinds of pictures... but not this one.  Probably a week ago I came across this one and thought, "Wow.  I didn't know I had a picture of just Grandpa and the boys.  I wish I had seen this a couple weeks ago when I made that poster."  

Early Monday morning Grandpa passed away.  We were all a bit surprised and have been slowly getting used to the idea for the last couple of days.  On Monday there was some talk of putting together a slide show of Grandpa's life and I thought, "That picture!"  It was perfect.  A perfect snapshot of a perfect moment found at the perfect time.  So for two days I've scoured my computer for the picture and I could NOT find it for the life of me.  I even started thinking I must have had a dream that I had this picture because it did not exist on my computer.  

How grateful I am that I found it today.  It was one of those tender mercies, you know?  And then I realized I hadn't seen many pictures of Grandpa with Tyler.  Sure enough, this is the one and ONLY picture of Tyler with his Great Grandpa Stratton.  It breaks my heart a little bit to know we didn't take any more.  But how grateful I am for this one.

Grandpa was always so happy and loved his little ones.  We were visiting him in the rehab center the night before he died and he just smiled at our boys as they scurried here and there through his room.  They were being so curious and he was just happy to have them there.  A few days before he told my boys they were the most handsome boys he had.  Of course then he told them that if any of their other boy cousins were there as well, he'd say it to them all.  He always smiled as he reminded me to take care of my boys when we'd leave their house on Sunday evenings.  To be honest, it was rare to see Grandpa without a smile.  He was a great man.  "One of the greatest" as so many people have told me the last few days.  My heart is flooded with so much I'd like to express about our dear Grandpa.  Too much to share here.  I think I need to spend a while with my journal in the next couple of days.

We love you Grandpa.  Can't wait to see you again someday.  Thanks for all you taught us.