Grandpa Brown

My Grandpa Brown passed away this week on Tuesday, September 6th, at age 84. This was the first time I’ve had a grandparent die, and I don’t really know how to talk/write about it.

Death is sad because we miss the person who died. But when the deceased person lived a long life and had lots of physical limitations due to age, death is also happy. It’s hard to express my thoughts about death because of the conflicting emotions I feel towards it. What I DO know is how thankful I am for the plan of salvation and the temple because I know that my family can be together forever, even after death.

Ronald D Brown: my Grandpa. His funeral was on Saturday, September 10th, in Washington, MO. We weren’t able to attend it, so here’s a little memorial of my own of what I remember about my Grandpa Brown. Since my childhood was before the digital age, I had to really DIG to find pictures to go along with it.

His fishing boat. (This is at least 20 years ago).

Tubing behind the fishing boat was the perfect speed for me. I remember my daredevil sister Em tried to get Grandpa to go faster once, but the boat was already maxed out! I was very glad.

We loved the lake house he built at Anthony Mills Resort—we had matching white Anthony Mills Resort hats. We liked to go fishing and tubing with Grandpa in the lake there.

We found some pretty sparkly rocks one time and Grandpa helped us bury them in a treasure box.

We loved looking through the deck into a bird’s nest. One time Grandpa  had to go under the porch and save Chickadee from a snake that was climbing the WALL to reach the nest! Grandpa was brave. 

I was baptized in Grandpa’s Washington, Missouri ward building when we visited for Thanksgiving in 1994. (that’s me and my Dad)

For Grandma’s and Grandpa’s 50th wedding anniversary, we had a family reunion. Here they are with 12 of their 13 grandkids—this may be the last time we were all together in one place! I still wear that blue shirt.

Grandpa was always very interested in my running. When we had a track meet in Illinois, he and my Dad came to cheer me on. This is a picture from that meet—even though he’s not IN the picture, he was there! [Oh and yes, I’m getting passed in this picture]

Grandma and Grandpa came to our wedding in Nauvoo. [Can you tell this was about the millionth picture we took that day? blahhhg]

I visited Missouri with the kids last November, and this last April too. I don’t have  a picture of Rose with her great grandpa, sadly. But here he is with 3 of his great-grandsons: Steve, Dan, and Jay.

A few other fond memories I have about Grandpa are:
--He called us all “kidlets” when we were little.
--He was very good at building things.
--He loved good ole Pixie, his dog.
--He always gave very firm, strong hugs, even after he had a stroke (or two).
--He loved eating Grandma’s “Dump Cake,” but hated its name. When I asked him what he thought it should be called, he said “I don’t know, but it should be something that makes it sound like a very good cake.”
--He loved basketball possibly more than my Dad—and that’s saying something.

We’ll see you later, Grandpa!