~Grandpa Heiner~

Eric's grandpa Ralph Schwab Heiner passed away on December 5th.  I was a sad day.  We have known for a little while that he was going to be going soon but even when you know, it's still hard.  We all miss him VERY much!

Grandpa Heiner is the first of both Eric & I's grandparents to die.  I know I have talked about this before but we have been so very blessed to have all of our grandparents alive.  Our kids have had 8 Great Grandparents until now.  How wonderful is that.  What a great blessing it is to not only have 8 Great Grandparents, but to know and be close to all of them.  Granted, as the years go by they will probably not remember much about them but they will have some memories.  And that makes me so happy!

Grandpa's funeral was beautiful.  He was so very thin but looked good.  It was a wonderful meeting and I don't want to say that it was a happy time, because we were obviously not happy that he was gone, but it was a peaceful and good.  (If that makes sense?)  Grandma looked sad but beautiful.  She is such a wonderful person!  Grandpa was a great man!  Someone to look up to, someone to pattern our lives after, he was happy and funny.  He lived a good life, followed the teaching of the prophets.  Loved the church and always asked if we were "tending to business" while giving a cute little sideways smile and a nudge to your side.  Those are the things that I am going to miss the most!!    

Here are a few pictures of the graveside services.  It was a beautiful day (but FREEZING!)

Grandpa was a military man and was honored by the Honor Guard

The headstone!

It is very nice looking!

Grandma

The pallbearers

Gun salute

Giving grandma the flag

Grandpa's casket was beautiful!  Black and gold! 

Hands in prayer

The funeral was wonderful.  Eric gave the opening prayer and brought me to tears!  Then after the 4 boys spoke (which was fun to hear) the grand kids (all of us immediate and married) sang "As Sisters in Zion/Army of Helaman" medley.  It was beautiful.  I didn't make it all the way through it.  I was a blubbery mess.

After the graveside services we all went back to the church for lunch.  And a few pictures.

Here is Grandma with all of the the grand kids.  Everyone was there except for one who lives in Florida (I think) and one on a mission.  AMAZING!!!

Here is one with all the grand kids (immediate and married)

And one of all the family that was there.

What a wonderful family!  I feel so blessed to be a part of this family.  We are more than a family, we are friends too.  What more could you ask for?