Memories of my Grandpa

Yesterday afternoon, Friday, February 20, 2009, my Grandpa Allred passed away. He had been quite sick for a year or so - going in and out of the hospital several times and had actually hung on longer than any of us expected.

I am so glad my family and I were able to visit him when we were at my parents last weekend. In the car on the way home I told Rex that I felt it would be the last time we saw him...and I was right. During our visit, he was quite out of it. He was very thin and frail and looked as if he was just tired - tired from a long life of hard work. The home health care nurse had given him some medicine to calm down a fever he had and it made him very sleepy. He did know we were there but hardly carried on a conversation with us. He slept through the entire visit.

I remember the man I call Grandpa being quite robust, full of energy, working on his ranch until about his 90th year when his health started to decline. He would get in his truck, call his dog Cosmo to jump in the back, and off he'd go to feed his cattle and check on things. As he drove along with his window down, he'd whistle and you could hear it a mile away. For several years now, he had others taking care of his ranch but he still liked to make sure things were as they should be.

I will always remember riding the tractor with my dad when we'd go to the ranch. We'd ride to the silo to get the 'feed' to feed the cattle . When I was younger, it was fun to ride in the 'scoop' of the tractor. I also remember learning to drive my dad's old truck (stick shift) on the ranch road. It was so much fun. Grandpa also had a pond with lots of ducks.

I have fond memories of what Grandpa did when my cousin Libby and I gave him a kiss on the cheek before leaving the house. He'd blow his cheeks up with air and hold it, then when we leaned in to kiss him we'd make his cheeks 'pop'.

My sister, Kelli, and I remember when we were very young, Grandma and Grandpa would come to our house and nearly EVERY time we'd ask Grandpa to play the piano and sing the song "Here comes that laughin' [person of a darker hue]. (Please, I hope no one reading this blog entry will take this in any other way than is intended - memories of my grandpa.) We would just roll on the floor laughing so hard. Then we would ask him to play it again and again. That was more than 25 years ago and after realizing how horribly wrong it was to laugh at such a thing, we didn't request it anymore. I actually think my parents put a stop to it eventually, to be honest.

Thanks Grandpa for all the memories. We love you and miss you, but we know you are in a better place and free of the ills of this earth.

I love you, Gramps!

Love, Kim