My 90 year old Father in law passed away yesterday, peacefully and with his wife and daughter by his side. We live 12 hours away and when we got the call day before yesterday that it was close we cobbled everything together as fast as we could and headed down. Sadly, my husband was not able to make it in time. It makes it that much more precious that we prioritized a trip back in Nov for my husband and my sons to come to my FIL's 90th birthday party.
Part of the families preparations for the funeral were selecting pictures to display the life of their dad. I was honored to be able to participate. His life was remarkable. We're looking at pictures and I see a family picture dated around the late 60's. There is a man in the picture I don't recognize. I asked my husband who it was, thinking it was a relative I wasn't aware of. His response? J Edgar Hoover. Yep. The creator of the FBI. My Father in law was a WWII vet, an FBI agent, a world traveler, dad to 6 kids, granddad to 7, great granddad to 3(and 1 pending) and married to the love of his life for 66 years. It is an amazing life filled with friends, family, serving God and others. It was amazing to see pictures of him from his childhood to his later years. A good-lookin guy with a quick wit and a quicker smile. He made me feel welcome from the get go all those 20 years ago. He has a special place in my heart, and always will.
Upon looking at all those pictures and we could only use 51, I thought to myself, when my time comes what will the pictures of my life say. Can you look at pictures of my life and say it was a life well lived? While I haven't traveled extensively(really not at all unless you count a few states around Ga), I hope people will look at my life and say it has been lived in the midst of family, friends, doing what I love, trying to serve God and others. I have my "things to do" list, but this comes secondary to getting my kids raised. So I guess first on my Bucket list would be raising my kids. All in all, I am happy. While my life isn't that exciting (at all), I am content. Do I want to travel? Welllll Yea! Have I done anything extraordinary? Not in the big scheme of things I guess, but I may not know of any impact I have until heaven. That's OK.
So can I just end this post and say "Thank you and I love you" to my FIL, John, I am so honored to have had a place in your family and as such your life story. It is an amazing story worthy of the man that lived it.....
God Speed you on your way...see ya soon.
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