Grandpa Harding...

My grandpa Harding died on December 12, 2011. It is always a relief, and a good thing when someone who is old and ill, dies. He had lived a long, full life, and it was time for his mind to leave his body. My grandpa's body was done. He had a seizure in the night and fell of his bed, and died. My grandpa did not want to be embalmed, so once he died, we had a small window of time to bury him. My grandpa was a simple man, a farmer. He wanted a simple funeral - well, he didn't want one at all. In fact, my grandma was going to bury him and not tell anybody until he was already in the ground. Luckily, my grandpa fell off his bed, and my uncle Kim got called to help my grandma. That is why we were able to attend the funeral. My mom - his only daughter - was working back east, and due to the time constraints, couldn't make it to the funeral. I filmed it for her. Back to the funeral...we were told no flowers, and we weren't to dress up. My grandpa did NOT want it in a church, and so we all met - his grandkids and kids - at Kim's house for lunch. Then we went to the cemetery and had a little graveside service. It was nice. I got to be a pall bearer. I didn't know girls could be pall-bearers. But it was awesome that we had enough of his grandkids to all be pallbearers. It was really great catching up with cousins I have, who I never see. It's always emotional for me to attend any funeral. I didn't know my grandpa very well - I can safely say - not many people did know him well. I do know he was an honest man who truly loved his family - although he didn't always know how to show it. Here are a few photos of the funeral, and a photo I took of my grandpa this summer. With my grandpa - I lost a loyal blog reader...until we meet again...