Thanks

I am so blessed in my life. I have such an amazing life. And I have the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have the knowledge of the Atonement and the Plan of Salvation. I have been blessed to know that when a loved one dies,  they can be reunited with those who have died before them.  I have been blessed to know of prayer and the blessings that come from it.

In my last post, I remarked that I had prayed for my Grandpa to be able to wait for my Grandma to be able to be with him at the hospital before he passed away. I knew that it would not be a long time once Grandma got there, but I knew that I just needed Heavenly Father to wait for a little while longer. So I prayed for a little time and a lot of peace and comfort. And as an answer to mine and many of my families prayers, grandma made it to the hospital before Grandpa passed away.

I was laying on my couch trying to take a nap, but it wasn't happening. My eyes were closed. and all of a sudden, I just knew that Grandpa was with my mom. I don't think at that point he had actually died yet, but I KNEW that he was with my mom. I felt it so strongly that I actually opened my eyes, wondering if they were standing in the room with me waiting to tell me. They weren't there, at least I didn't see them...but as I thought about it, I got chills down one side of my body. I just knew that they were together again. My mom was there with him, inviting him to go home to his Father in Heaven. My mom was there to welcome him home and show him around. My phone rang at 3, and the feeling went with it. It was my brother, calling to let me know that Grandma was at the hospital. We talked about the fact that it may not happen soon, but we knew it was coming.

I logged onto my phone and saw a picture of the Brick that is on the front of the VA home in Ogden where Grandpa has been. It was posted by my cousin.  It is my Grandpa's WW2 Brick. That made me think about Grandpa's time in the war. I have never been able to hear a lot of stories from his time in the war, so I decided to do a search for the info on the brick. I didn't find much yet, but I will continue learning about the European Theater of WW2.

At 3:27 my phone rang. It was my dad, and he was calling to tell me that Grandpa was gone. But in reality I already knew, because I knew he was with my mom, and he couldn't be with her, unless he was gone.

This is a picture of my 3 angels. This picture was taken at my brother Kevin's wedding. It was back before most of the problems for any of them. Mom was already sick at this time, but the cancer diagnosis didn't come for another 6 or so months. Grandpa P didn't get bad for a couple more years. My sister pointed out this photo now has greater significance, as all three of the wonderful people in this picture are now together in Heaven. I imagine that they are probably standing just like that watching all of our tears and thinking that we should just get over it, cause one day we will all be together again.

Grandpa is no longer suffering. For the past 5 months or so, he has not been able to be in his own home. He has been in the hospital for a long time. He suffered, but he isn't suffering anymore. He is smiling, walking like he hasn't been able to for YEARS! He is going on daddy-daughter dates with my mom. He is happy. And one day, we can all be with him again, just like he is again with my mom.

So the title of this post is Thanks. I give my Thanks to my Father in Heaven, who gave me the answers to my prayers:

He gave Grandpa a little more time to wait for Grandma.
He gave me peace and comfort, despite the tears.
And he gave me the knowledge that My mom was able to be with him as he left this mortal life to join the immortal world beyond.

And yes, I prayed for each of those things last night in my prayers, and just about every minute since then. To my thanks go to a Father in Heaven that loves me so much and answers prayers that to him may seem unimportant, but to me meant the world. I don't think simply saying a prayer of thanks would be sufficient for that, so I publicly thank Him, for all that, for the Gift of His Son, my Savior Jesus Christ, and for the Atonement that makes possible the joy of a future Heavenly reunion. I don't know how I could survive loosing 2 grandpas in 13 weeks and 4 hours if I didn't have that knowledge!