My childhood memories will have to keep me because there isn't much of a relationship after I was 20. I lived on the other side of the states and seldom made it back to Washington.
Grandpa loved a good puzzle. He loved those games with the golf tees and the holes that told you if you were a genius or not by how many tees were left in the holes...and those wire shapes all looped together that seemed impossible to untangle, but he knew how. He would challenge us with a twinkle in his eyes, daring us to figure it out or do better than him. He was the carver of the turkey. The driver of the Motel T. He seemed to have one pair of jeans...lol...but I think he must have 5 of the same pair. I remember sleeping over at their place on the pull-out couch and waking to breakfast cooking and grandpa sitting at the table his his robe, reading the paper. He had a dry sense of humor. He loved to travel and I loved looking at pics of the places they had been on their Winnebago. As a child that was the preferred mode of transportation...lol...and I often thought it would be cool to have one of my own when I grew up.
I remember being at the lake. Some of my best memories were at the lake. Grandpa taught me to fish... And I have all sorts of memories on boats...a houseboat floating along...row boats on Lake Newman...speed boats on Lake Couerdalane... We took that speed boat across the lake, wind whipping through our hair...and I was perfectly happy...
My grandparents were always together. I don't think I ever had a conversation over the phone with Grandpa where he didn't say..."Here's your grandmother..." and hand me off to her. Honestly, I can't remember a time when they weren't. Sixty years they were married....and now she is alone. Family is there not wanting her to be left alone. I told her to go easy on them. There is nothing they can do to make it better. They know that. This is all they have, comforting her...I understand that empty hollow feeling. That feeling that a part of you is missing. A part of you will always be missing...but I told her to embrace the memories, good and bad, hold onto them because it rare indeed that someone gets to spend 60 years with the person they love.
This is one of my favorite set of pics...love...:-)
[John H. Semb died 5pm 3/23/10...Jan]
Wedding photos Aug. 20, 1949. John and Vernal Semb...[Vernal A.George]
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