Max is the youngest child of George's "second batch." This is what his dad would always say. Max was born when his dad was in his 50s so he always had an "old man" dad. Over the last decade, Max's Dad has had many health issues, including strokes and heart disease. This is to say that his health had been declining for quite awhile, to the point that everyone was surprised he was still with us. After a large stroke in May 2019, he wasn't expected to live another year and he surpassed that milestone as well. At the beginning of Summer. George was on hospice and we got the call at the beginning of August that he could no longer eat or drink. Usually when this happens, people are not expected to live more than 4 days. After we got notice, we left the next day to head out to Prineville so Max could be with his dad. When we arrived, we were greeted with smiles. For the last year or so, George didn't really recognize who we were or needed to be reminded. He loved seeing the little boys though.
We visited with him for awhile then made our way across the street to Max's Brother's house. Lisa and the cousins were gone camping but they had made a nice place for us to stay. My boys started playing right away. The next couple of days Max worked with his Mom and Brother making funeral arrangements and cleaning out the garage area of his parent's house. I kept the kids entertained and waited for the cousins to come back.
Also, the Parks in Portland were still closed so it was great that the ones in Prineville were not. so we took full advantage of that.
There was a mini library and my boys were excited about it.
Chocolate mustache!
They hear something on a screen and they all come flocking.
This was not the loveliest sounding violin.
They put themselves in there.
Finally the cousins came home from their camping trip and there was some epic playtime.
And more park outings.
It had been about 5 days and Max's dad was still holding on. It was a tricky situation as we were just waiting, knowing that his death would inevitably come but not knowing when that would be. Max spent time with him each day. When we first had arrived, his dad would keep trying to get up and walk around with little coordination and a lot of confusion. After a couple days we was resting calmly in his bed.
I needed to take the boys back to Portland for some meetings and appointments. So I did that while Max stayed back with his family and arranged more funeral plans with Brent and Lisa.
While back in Portland I was able to help a little bit by sending some of our George photos to Lisa who put together a great slideshow. Here are a couple of our favorites.
We laugh about this rafting trip because Max's dad talks a lot and he speaks quietly and mumbly so we has talking to me this whole rafting trip and I didn't understand most of what he was saying with the sounds of the water and rapids.
Grandpa with Charlie.
Right after Max's mission
While we were back in Portland Max let us know that his dad had passed, 9 days after he initially stopped eating and drinking. He was surrounded by Max, Brent, Lisa, Bob, Shirley, and Tana. Even with preparation and knowing that this was coming, Max found himself taking it harder than he expected. We gave him a couple days before we went back, with plans to bring him back home. We were able to stay a couple more days while Max, Brent, and Lisa made more funeral plans and prepped for the family garage Sale. Max's dad was always having garage sales so they thought it would be fun to set up their car port like a garage sale and have the family come pick items to keep. I mostly stayed out of their way and supervised the children.
And sometimes our kids looked like this when they were over tired...
Lisa had all the fun things to do. She busted out all the craft supplies and all the little boys had a hey day!
Edwin's Forky!
And we took another trip to the splash pad.
While going through photos, this little gem was found. I'm assuming Max is about 7 years old in this photo and I see a lot of Miles in his face.
My boys enjoyed playing with their cousins big dogs most of the time.
After a couple days, we went home again so Max could go back to work. Then we went back out to Prineville again for the funeral. It was held at the nearby LDS chapel. Thankfully everyone that wanted to attend was able to attend and it was also streamed on ZOOM. I was able to play some music and Max's oldest brother, Bob was able to share some stories about George followed by Max sharing some stories. Max said it was fun and interesting hearing his oldest brother's perspective since Max was raised nearly 25 years later. It was two versions of the same dad. Bob and Max were followed by guests sharing stories. Overall, the stories revolved around George's incredible patience. Something Max has always shared about his dad is that he has always been supportive of whatever choice Max has made and has never missed an opportunity to tell Max how proud he was.
The funeral was followed by a chipotle lunch and viewing the slideshow Lisa made. There were so many pictures and events in George's life that we hadn't really known about.
It was also the first time my boys had dressed up in months and I couldn't resist taking a couple pictures of them.
Miles chose the Santa Clause tie because Grandpa was Santa Clause
Little Emmett looked great all dressed up!
Following the luncheon. the family went back to Brent and Lisa's house for a spaghetti dinner, to share stories and peruse the garage sale. We stayed one more night then made our way back home.
