'Til We Meet Again

A few posts ago I mentioned how Andy's grandpa had passed away and Andy had flown out to California to go to his funeral. It was Andy's mother's father, Gordon Roth. He was an amazing man and I loved him like my own grandfather. It was quite a bit of a shock when he was diagnosed with Lukemia the end of March. They started chemo the next week and he slowly went into organ failure. Andy's mom called the morning of my triathlon and told us he was going downhill quickly, and that she was flying out that morning to be able to see her father one last time. He died a couple days later, only a week and 2 days after his diagnosis. Like I said, I would have loved to be able to go with Andy to the funeral, but we didn't have people to watch our kids, so I stayed and he went. I am so glad he got to go. He said it was so great to see his entire family (which is HUGE by the way) and they had a great big party the whole weekend which is just the way Grandpa Roth would have wanted it. He was all about having parties and making everything fun.... and he loved food! Leatherby's was his favorite place to eat and I think the whole family went there 3 times over the weekend. 6 of his grown grandsons and one uncle ordered the Daddy Dave sundae which is 2 TWO quarts of ice cream covered in 3 different sauces, nuts, whip cream, and a cherry. If you finish it, you get your picture on the Wall of Fame. Grandpa Roth is on there, of course. All 7 of them finished it and got their picture up there with their grandpa.

5 of the 6 men who finished the Daddy Dave (my husbands family are all giants. He is the shortest here at 6'3'' and the tallest grandson is 6'8")

Here is Andy's beautiful mama putting a flower on her daddy's casket

Andy said the funeral was amazing and he was a pallbearer along with all of his male cousins. It was a beautiful day and they had a delicious lunch afterwards. They did family pictures and all of grandpa's children and spouses, as well as 31 of Andy's 32 cousins were at the funeral (one of his cousins is currently serving a mission in Mexico). Only some spouses and great granchildren (like me and the kids along with some others) weren't able to make it. I know I can get copies of the pictures, I'll have to add them later. I'm glad everyone was able to make it to celebrate the life of a wonderful man. Goodbye grandpa.... 'til we meet again!