So last Friday afternoon, we got a call from Lisa saying Brandon's Papaw Kenny had finally passed away. From what I understand, he has been very sick for a very long time and had pretty much told everyone he was very ready to go... like, when they took him off of the ventilator he asked '...what's taking so long?' I suppose this made it easier for Tim & Dave & others close to Papaw Kenny... I would think it would help a lot.
Anyway, we spent Saturday morning packing and cleaning (our house had to be spotless in case somebody wanted to come look at it), then, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in hand, set off for the buzzing metropolis of Richlands, VA. We got hungry along the way and stopped to eat, only to get back on the highway and realize we were only 30 min. from our destination! As soon as we got to Great-Aunt Wilma & Great-Uncle Jack's (hereafter just Wilma & Jack) house, we noticed Jack grilling a feast in the back yard. Lisa had used her birthday money to spoil Jonas a little more (he got a big blow up play thing and some other toys for her birthday =) ) so Jonas had a big time running around with his new toys till his cousin Kyndahl arrived... then they both had fun with their new toys.
Our late afternoon over-stuffing set the stage for the rest of the trip in the eating department. Say what you will about Richlands, but you will never, EVER go hungry there! Wilma and Jack were awesome hosts and kept us full to busting the whole trip... I swear I got used to eating a full meal every 2 hours. Brandon, Jonas and I stayed in the "master bedroom" of one of Wimla & Jack's houses (yes, one of... i think they had 4 on the hill...). This is where I learned one thing that Uncle Jack was famous for... his firearms. I had heard he had an "arsenal" on the way up, little did I know... There were 3 loaded guns in our bedroom alone, which is ok with me as long as Jojo couldn't get to them (and he couldn't). Not that 3 is an arsenal... no, no. I asked Uncle Jack for a tour of his arsenal, and he obliged, but only for the guns he had in ONE of their houses. I can't remember every detail of every gun, but I did learn a lot about different guns... the difference between a flint lock, muzzle loader, pump action, semi-automatic, lever action, etc. were some of the things I learned. Suffice to say he easily had hundreds of guns, no exageration necessary. Anyway... he also was a painter and made (yes made) violins. They said he was a "hobby man" =)
Anyway, on Sunday, we all went to visit Papaw Kenny's last living relatives, his brother and sister-in-law. They, also were very nice and insisted on stuffing us full of delicious food (though theirs was of the fudge variety, i can't complain! =) ). We learned a lot of family history Sunday as well... brandon's grandma (Nadine, sister of Wilma) was 1 of 22 children... yes, twenty-two. Wilma said their dad had 3 wives all of whom died and he remarried... that is crazzzzy, so many kids! And I thought we had a big family! We also got to hear stories of yester-year. Apparently Tim was born while Papaw Kenny was in vietnam, so Grandma Nadine wrote him a letter asking him what he wanted to name the baby. He wrote back and said some crazy super-old sounding name like "manfred horace"... he was therefore shocked when he got back to meet little Manfred (or whatever) that he was, in fact Timothy. haha =)
Anyway... Monday was the funeral... it was pretty standard as far a funerals go. Brandon and Max were pall bearers, and so they both looked very nice. In fact, we had to have an intervention with Max to get him to do his hair so it wasn't in his face. He finally decided he would wet his hair, and then I would blow dry it backwards so that it would fall naturally, but be not in his face. This worked out rather well, if I do say so myself. Actually, everybody looked very nice. We had a debate over whether it was against funeral ettiquite to take a picture of Papaw kenny since he was looking so nice... but decided that was creepy.
Anyway, after the funeral, Brandon, Jonas and I headed home. Jonas was so tired he slept the whole way back, and even all night... what a good little boy.
In conclusion, even though it was a sad thing we gathered for, it was a pretty good trip overall.
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How did I not know you have a blog? Now I can do more than facebook stalk you! Are there any other modes of internet stalking I should know about???
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I wanted to chime in and correct you on some of the history stuff (it was my major after all.) It wasn't our Grandma Nadine but our Great-grandma (Mamaw Lawson) that was 1 of 22. Nadine and Wilma are 2 of 6. And Papaw was in Germany not Vietnam (that conflict hadn't started quite yet in '61.) I interviewed him for a paper once and he told me he was hungover from honkey-tonkin when they got the orders to march to the East Germany border waiting for orders from President Kennedy on whether to invade when the Berlin Wall went up. And then David was there when the wall came down. Cool huh?
Uh and this is Jennifer by the way. :-)