I had some very shocking news on Tuesday morning. I woke up to a bunch of text messages about my paternal grandparents passing away. My grandfather was 89 and my grandmother was 85, so maybe I shouldn't have been too surprised. My main shock was that they died on the same day together, which is actually very sweet and the best way for them to go.
It took a few days to get the best details. At first, the news was that she died first and he had a heart attack trying to help her. Now, it has come out that they were both outside doing yard work. He must have had a heart attack. She used a walker so she went to help him, but realized she needed to get to their phone. As she was headed to the house, she fell. She tried to scooch along, but it was just too hot and too hard. She passed away. A delivery man found their bodies and made the call. My aunt, who lives nearby, rushed over too (small town so word spreads quickly). She said they looked like they were napping peacefully.
I can imagine him dying first and then watching her make the effort to help. He probably kept trying to tell her just to come with him. Eventually, she laid there and heard him. They were fiercely independent, but needed each other to survive.
My grandparents did not like funerals or attention. They didn't even make it to my dad's funeral, which could have been partly because of the cold weather and traveling. They have actually lost 3 out of their 5 kids in the last 10 years (my dad was first). It has taken a real toll on them.
These funny grandparents had a list of things that they did not want to happen and threatened to haunt anyone who did not follow their wishes. The list included holding a funeral, buying flowers for their grave, and creating/having an obituary. It makes me laugh how they think these things are for the people who died. They are actually for the ones alive to help heal. All of these wishes were sort of followed and sort of not.
They had bought plots in a tiny cemetery in the mountains near a town called Moore, Idaho. It is ridiculously far from even that town. It was one of the places that they used to heard cattle in the summers. My aunts, Barbara & Maureen, had a "non-funeral" for them today. I wasn't able to attend, but my brother, Clayton, did. There was not an official obituary, but we are all on Facebook and posted a lot about it. They didn't even know to ban that. I think they are laughing about it now that they are in heaven.
Surviving children, Maureen & Barbara (small pot of flowers)
Some family members that attended, including my brother, Clayton, and several of my cousins.
Time marches on with a little sadness. I realize that this was the best way and that it was time. It is also the end of me having grandparents that are still alive. I have been writing letters to them for as long as I can remember. They were very good at writing back and keeping in touch that way. The world has definitely lost two more cowboys with a fun sense of humor.
