On June 11th my Grandpa Bryant passed away. He had been suffering from strokes for about a couple of months and the week before he passed, he got pneumonia.
The week before, Scott and I were able to go visit him in St. George, where he lives, on our way back home from Arizona. He was staying in the hospital and since we got there pretty late, my grandma wasn't around and he was actually going to sleep. I went in and said hello and to be honest, I'm not quite sure if he recognized who I was. He was really out of it and towards the end of our visit kept falling asleep. It was so sad to see my grandpa in that state. He had lost a lot of weight, and he didn't even sound or look like the grandpa I knew. I only got to visit with him for 10 minutes and then we left. He was so tired I didn't want to keep him awake. I had the feeling that those would be my last times with him, and so I basically told him I loved him and kissed him on his forehead. I have never experienced anything like that. No one in my family has died yet and so this was really hard for me.
At his funeral though, it was so wonderful to be with my family and to realize that he is not in pain anymore and he is with his own parents right now.
My dad spoke about him and his life and I actually learned a few things that I didn't know about him. For example: My grandma, dad, and aunts have been LDS their whole lives. He always accepted that fact but never accepted the gospel. He was very kind about it but didn't feel the need to join the church. One evening, some other kind of missionaries (not from the LDS church) came up to their house. My grandpa was outside with the dog smoking a cigarette and they asked if he would be interested in their church. He told them that the whole family were mormons so they didn't need their lesson.
Anyways, my uncle spoke more about the spiritual side of things. Towards the last few years of my grandpa's life, he started watching conferences with my grandma. Apparently he loved Pres. Hinckley. He always kept saying, "Now there's a man with common sense." He thought Pres. Hinckley was his best friend but Pres. Hinckley didn't even know it. :) Like my uncle said about my stubborn grandpa, I think all the evidence was just too strong for him, that he couldn't just not join the church. He knew in his heart it was true, and he couldn't stay away from it any longer. He had a very strong testimony, and knew how important it was to be apart of this church. My uncle also spoke on how death is apart of life. We need to experience this so that we can all learn and grow from it. We all knew that this would happen, and we all accepted this fact of life. For some reason it comforted me very much.
It was a sad day when he passed away, yet I didn't find myself crying like I did when I last saw him alive. I think it is because I know I will see him again. This isn't just some fairy tale or something that you just think will happen. I know. I will miss him while he is not on this earth. But I know he will serve where he needs to serve right now, and he is watching over us and our families. It is so important to do all the things we are asked to do so that someday, we all can be with our families and friends once again.
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