Granddad

My (Ben’s) grandfather, Alfred Marshall Thompson, passed away last Thursday, December 4, after battling complications from old age and pneumonia.

Granddad was a sweet and sensitive man, a man of many good deeds and few words. He was always doing kind things for others and smiled all the time. The weeks I spent with my grandparents when I was younger remain some of the best weeks of my life. I was nobody’s brother or the youngest child, I was the grandson, royalty for the week.

They both loved me in a way I only felt from my grandparents. Grandmom passed away in 2004, and I am glad they will be reunited. I’ll miss Granddad. I saw him two weeks ago and knew it was the last time I would see him alive, and I felt peaceful and sad at the same time. I had a chance to look in his big blue eyes and say goodbye.

The funeral was today, December 8, in Wichita Falls, TX, and it went well. It was a small family service and it was a nice close to a wonderful life. We all shared tears and laughs as we remembered this kind, gentle man who showed us how to care.