This past weekend my Grandpa Feenstra was badly burnt while we was working in his shop, he got 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his arms and is in need of skin grafts, however he is 88 years old and although the toughest 88 year old I know he is still 88 years old.
I have thought about him a lot this week and all my favorite memories of him so before I get to be 88 I would love to share some of my most favorite.
- Little history lesson first, my family all bought some land when I was little and my mom and her four sisters all built houses and lived there. We were the first to move but had 4 awesome, fun years there with all of my extended family. My grandpa was divorced from my grandma so he came and lived on the farm with my Aunt Rose and Uncle John and he worked the land. My extended family was very big and there was a total of 17 cousins living on this farm. Bad luck of the draw though and the closest girl cousin my age was 5 years older then me and then 4 years younger then me, with lots and lots of boys in between. They were pretty decent at letting me play with them and sometimes my sweet older cousin Julie would come play barbies with me, and sometimes I would be sweet to my little cousin Laura and go play games with her, but there were many many summer days of me all by myself on this big farm with nobody to play with, so the only other person to hang out with was my sweet Grandpa Harmen, and that didn't upset me at all. Many many summer mornings I would walk down to his work shops and try and find where he was working, once I found him the conversations began. He always had the time to talk with me and laugh with me, as I am older now I appreciate it even more as I am sure he was a very busy man. I don't remember much of what we talked about, but I remember always watching him and looking at him and thinking this is the most strongest, bravest, greatest man I know. A part of me was always kind of nervous around him at first, like how could this smart, strong, and amazing of a man love me and want to spend time with me, but as the conversations flew all my worries went away and I just would sit there and marvel at him. This is by far my favorite memory and as I look back now I am so grateful for not having girl cousins my age as I would have missed out on a lot of those sweet moments just me and him had together.
- my next favorite memory would be at church on Sundays, I would always be looking for Grandpa and the moment I saw him I would run up to him and give him the biggest hug. If it was before church I remember always asking him to come sit with us and if it was after church I never left his side until it was time to go. There was an underlining reason of course. If anybody has meet my Grandpa and has been to church with him, I am sure you can remember the briefcase he always carried around with him. In it contained a hymn book, his scriptures, there was always some sort of papers in there, and the best part Chocolates. I can't remember the name of them but I loved them and if he sat by me in church he would always sneak me a few, or a couple after church if I found him then. I also always wanted to sit with him because I remember again always thinking he was the greatest man and lots of the girls in our ward would call him Grandpa and loved him too, but I always liked to remind them that he really was my Grandpa.
- My last memory I am going to share is one I didn't know about until I was a little bit older about 13 or 14. We were at other one of our traditional Feenstra family Christmas concerts or it was one of my Grandpa's birthdays. For some reason I am thinking it was one of his Birthdays like his 70th. Anyways we were all together as a family on the farm and one of my Aunt's asked Granpda if he would Yodel for us. I had never heard Yodeling before but the fun, sweet tune that came out of his voice was incredible and definitely something I will never forget. It was without a doubt in my mind when my Grandpa went from being tough, brave, handsome, and amazing, to now the coolest Man in the world.
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| Grandpa at the Hospital with all his 5 daughters and son |
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| the handsome young man to the right is my Grandpa Feenstra |
