lessons...

See that guy there in the middle?...

That is my brother, Wayne Jr, and it was his father that passed away.

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In going home for the services and to be with family, I learned some lessons.

A lot of them from my brother. :)

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He is so much like his dad! I never realized it before, but it was sooooo evident on Thursday evening when he and my sister, Bev, picked me up at the airport. We had a two and a half hour drive up to mom's house and I was not sure how it was going to be. Well, Wayne kept us in stitches A LOT. He accidentally took the wrong exit on the freeway and as Bev said, "You weren't supposed to take that one....", Wayne said, "Well if we hadn't we wouldn't have been able to see that neat bridge over there. And we wouldn't have gotten a view of downtown either." All this was said with a smile on his face and a chuckle in his voice. :)

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I realized right then that he was defiantly his father's son.....that is exactly what Wayne Sr would have said about the whole thing. To him there was always something positive in everything!

Wayne Jr has picked this up and showed me so many times, whether intentionally or not, that I should look for the positive no matter what is going on around me.

Thank you Wayne!

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I also learned that family is so important. I mean, I always knew that and have always loved my family but this was brought home more in this time of grief. I had mentioned to my mom how I was surprised that the obituary read "6 children" instead of "1 son, 4 step-daughters, & 1 step-son". She said that it had originally read that way, but Wayne Jr asked for it to be changed because to his dad we were all his children. "Step" was never in his mind or vocabulary. Wow...that impacted me so much. I have learned to stop referring to Wayne Jr as my step-brother and now proudly call him my BROTHER. :) And I love that he allows my kids to call him "Uncle Wayne". That means so much.

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I also learned that even the hardest of people can be reduced to tears.

My grandpa is one of the orneriest people I know. Yes, he can be a fun & funny guy, but boy when his mind is set, it's set. He is as stubborn as they come and you can not change his mind.

Only twice in my life have I seen a real tender side of this man and I believe only once have I seen tears. This was the time I saw tears. Grandpa really liked Wayne Sr and this was a hard thing for him to have to deal with. His heart belonged to my mom that whole weekend. It reminds me that I do love my grandpa no matter what.

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(There are more, but I have to think so I will come back and update this at a later time. )