[Blade]

We lovingly called him Pop. He was my father in law. The most gentle man I have ever known. He was very quiet and very soft spoken when he did talk. He didn't have much but he would give you the shirt off of his back.

He taught me so many things, that I guess I took for granted at the time. Thinking he would always be here, yet knowing at some point he would finally be at peace physically. We picked on him all the time about pulling his pants up, until he finally started wearing suspenders. He worked hard at his job and came home in the evenings and worked just as hard in the garden. On his days off he and I worked in the garden, picking and preparing veggies for canning. He loved his grandkids and took care of them all at some point. They loved Papaw as much as he loved them. They dotted on each other, and in his gentle voice all he ever had to do was say their name and they would settle down from whatever he was after them about. Occasionally he would "get you with his hat". That was his most stern correction with the kids.

Pop looked after his wife, and they went everywhere together. She didn't drive but he would cart her off to the mall and sit in the middle and wait on her to bring packages to take to the car. He helped her with canning to the wee hours of the mornings when the garden was coming off.

One of the funniest stories I always tell about Pop, was from many years ago. Twenty-five years ago there was no charge to carry off garbage to the dump. Some big doo daa took over the sanitation department for this county and decided we'd have to start paying to go to the landfield. Pop had a huge building, and he kept everything. He also let everyone he knew put stuff out there. Funiture, mowers, motors, clothes, everything you can imagine.

We decided to clean out the building before we had to pay at the dump. We filled up my truck and his truck and took off for our first trip to the dump. We got his truck cleaned out and started throwing stuff out of my truck and his wife turned around and caught him putting stuff back in his truck as we were throwing it out of my truck. She yelled at him, "PUT THAT BACK! WHY DO YOU THINK WE ARE HERE" "WE AIN'T TAKIN HOME MORE THAN WE BRUNG" LOL he chuckled his soft chuckle and said Moma somebody might need this stuff. She said well if they do they can go buy it, you aint takin it home. I laughed at them so many times.

Pop has been gone 14 months. I miss him, his gentle nature, his soft spoken voice, but mostly his love of his family and me.