Grandpa Roger

One of my earliest memories is going into my grandparents' house for Christmas breakfast and my grandpa making my eggs to order - which he did before there were so many of us, 30-some years ago. Something in my brain treasured that moment and kept it for me, and I'm so thankful.

We counted yesterday, grandkids and great-grandkids, preparing the obituary. The last count was 31 grandchildren and 53 great-grandchildren. I told Justin, and he said, "That's a legacy."

My grandpa was a storyteller. I laughed until I couldn't laugh anymore at his stories. I was shocked at his stories. With Grandpa, you felt whatever he wanted you to feel in a story, because he was just that good. He had a story about driving on the interstate and baby pigs falling out of the back of a truck. I could never retell it, or even attempt to, but he did many times at our insistence. Once we were watching something on tv about the USS Indianapolis, struck by a Japanese torpedo. He said to me, "Sarah, most of them didn't drown. They were shark-eaten." Yikes. And together, he and Grandma would tell the story of finding the big red house in a terrible state, falling apart, with pigeons in it, and Grandma thought Grandpa was crazy for wanting to buy it, but they made the house a home.

Once, when Justin was making a decision about a job, Grandpa told him, "Life's all about choices. Sometimes you make the right ones, sometimes you make the wrong ones." We quote this and laugh every once in a while.

Grandpa was in the Navy and served in Korea. He was proud of his service and loved all things Navy. To tell you where he worked would be an endless list, because he never could quite retire until he had to, and even then, he never could sit still.

Grandpa was many things to many people. One thing he consistently did was step up. One Father's Day, they played "The Dad He Didn't Have to Be," for him. Half of his kids, biologically, *weren't.* But that never mattered. He was their Pop. He was my grandpa, even though we share no blood. He was not only a grandpa, but a father figure for three generations of kids whenever they needed it.

He was a good grandpa. I got 37 years with him - so many more than most people get with their grandpas - and it wasn't even close to enough. A friend told me, "A good grandparent is one of the Lord's kindest blessings." I couldn't say it better myself.