Leonard W. Peterson
Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 6:24 PM
Young Len in his mid twenties & Len, last year, at eighty-seven.
If you had asked me a week ago, what I thought I would be doing right now, at 6:26pm on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 I would have said, "Doing my hair after a long day of sun at the pool, and deciding what restaurant to go to for dinner." Well, our plans have changed. The last few days of our vacation have been quite eventful. To start it off, my Uncle Steve got quite sick the latter half of our first week in Arizona. For about 48 hours, it felt like it was just the five of us (my family of four and our aunt) on vacation. Just as he started to get better, my dad became violently ill. We're quite sure it was food poisoning at a restaurant we ate at on Sunday. All through the night and throughout Monday, he was in a comatose state. Once again, it was the five of us, albeit a different five of us. We had an amazing dinner at P.F. Chang's while my poor dad stayed home in bed. After getting in the door of our condo at 7:15pm, we found my dad for the first time in 36 hours sitting up on the corner of the bed.
His dad, Leonard Wesley Peterson, had passed away at 6:05pm that same night. How awful is it that the first time my dad can sit up without feeling nauseated is just to answer a phone call from his cousin letting him know his dad has passed away. My brother went and fetched Steve and Lyla (my uncle and aunt) from their condo and shared the news. We had a calm evening just with the family, and we tried to sort through funeral plans and airline changes and everything. Death is really stressful sometimes, isn't it? We were planning to stay in Arizona until Saturday morning, then drive to Vegas, and fly out Sunday. We changed flights right away and flew out just this morning. So here I am. At home in my bedroom in Surrey, BC. But enough about me.
The last two or three years have been very difficult for Len, as he has been bounced around between assisted living to the hospital for months on end, finally to a few different nursing homes. We are all glad to see him go to Heaven and meet Jesus and all the loved ones that are there as well. Len was a great man who loved the Lord, fathered four children--two of which he lost tragically, was a great husband to his wife until she passed away from cancer fourteen years ago. Len was also a family history buff and loved to talk and write in detail about family history and stories of the generations that have come before. He published two books while in his eighties, detailing almost every year in his long life.
The following pictures are a tribute to my grandfather Len, born February 1, 1920 and passed away on March 24, 2008 at the age of 88.
I searched through our old photos and this one of my father and I
with Grandpa Len at his 87th Birthday party last February.
Grandpa Len with my Grandmother Evelyn on their Wedding Day in 1947.
Evelyn is just one of many people Len has been reunited with in Heaven as of Monday.
Labels: personal
2 Comments:
I am very sorry for your lose.
Sorry for the loss of your grandfather. I'm glad that you have such great photos to keep his memory alive.
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