So these past two weeks have been filled with much sadness as well as excitement. On February 12th "Grumpa" (my dad's dad) passed away. You can view his obituary from The Buffalo News by clicking here. He had gotten sick around Thanksgiving and just could never make a full recovery. Grumpa wished to not be laid out nor have a traditional funeral mass. Instead, he requested that we have a Memorial Mass with close friends and family. In keeping with Grumpa's wishes, we are going to have the Memorial Mass sometime the week of July 13th as my Uncle Jon, Aunt Marilyn, cousins Aaron and Matthew; DJ, April, Maya, and Zachary; Alysia; and Becky and David (my Grumpa's companion, Catharine's daughter and her husband) will all be in town at that time. He would be very happy to know that we will all be together for more than just an afternoon to celebrate his life!!Now I knew Grumpa always kept himself busy, but I never knew just how busy he really was until I helped my dad clean out his apartment. First and foremost, he was an avid writer. He has two full-length published books: Young Jesus, the Missing Years as well as Remembering Old Buffalo. However, his file cabinets were full of many, many, MANY other stories and articles he wrote as well. Most of them have been published in The Buffalo News or other local publications. For instance, he did a good majority of the cover stories for Living Prime Time and wrote numerous reminiscence articles for After 50 and the Bingo Bugle.
But what I didn't know was how many letters he wrote. He wrote letters to everyone from Monroe Muffler (he wasn't impressed with their latest products) to President George Bush...literally. He has copies of letters he has sent congressmen/women, senators, representatives, sports figures, and more. And what was even better was that many of them wrote back to Grumpa.
And when I say copies, I think he saved a copy of anything and everything he ever sent out or received. There were files of email correspondance between family and colleagues among copies of just about anything you can imagine!
In the meantime, in every closet my father started to clear out, he would find another box of photos! Photos dating all the way back to my great great grandfather!! And what is even better is that so many of them are actually labeled!! My great grandmother, Mabel, Grumpa's mother also was an avid scrapbooker. Therefore, my dad also came across numerous scrapbooks that she made for my grandfather up until she passed away in her mid 90s. Supposedly, there is even one that she made of my brother (the oldest grandchild on Dad's side).
In addition to the photos and in his file cabinet were files of Radder Family documents. Everything from a journal from around the Civil War period to obituaries of various ancestors.
Grumpa was a man with 1,000 stories...each that was more interesting than the previous. He will be missed dearly, but happy he gets to reunite with my grandma who passed away almost 30 years ago.
If you haven't already noticed that the date Grumpa passed away was the same date (and close to the same time) that flight 3407 crashed into a house in Clarence Center - just about a mile from us. It was a lot to comprehend seeing that I found out about both Grumpa and the crash at precisely the same time. It's amazing how many people were from Clarence on that flight. The house that the plane crashed into belonged to the secretary at our district office - who's daughter teaches with a friend of mine's husband. My principal's brother's girlfriend was on the flight as well. She was flying in for my principal's wedding. And I went to school with another passenger's brother who was a year behind me in Clarence. And then there is my step-brother-in-law who was a responder on scene for the Clarence Center Fire Company. All I can think about is the last moments of the flight and how scary it must have been. We continue to think of the families and hope that their happy memories of their loved ones will help them through the difficult time.
Okay...can we get on to the happy stuff now????? The week leading up to Valentine's Day was a very progressive one for Ella. She began to consistently place objects 'in' as well as lifting up her arms to be held (that gives me such a warm fuzzy). Then on that Friday, Ella took a little crawl step while I was Skypeing with April but nothing more until Valentine's Day. She took off crawling and there has been no stopping her since!!!!
Her crawl started very slowly and deliberately which was so cute to watch. Now it has blossomed into a full out, hold nothing back crawl. And she is using her skills to her best advantage. Ella is officially getting into everything in her site which calls for regular vacuuming, closing doors, blocking stairways, you name it! She can get herself to kneeling and even pull herself to a stand on lower objects. She uses these skills to pull items off and out from just about everywhere. Furthermore, Ella is also able to climb up the step to the kitchen. However, she still learning to go down minus the face plant! And to top it off, I found her standing in her crib on Saturday. I can't believe how much and how fast she has taken off developmentally. Where has my baby gone???Ella has also graduated to medium diaper covers and standard baby-sized prefold diapers. Yes, we are still using washable diapers and still wouldn't do it any other way!!
In other exciting news, good friends of ours, Michelle & Matt Parks, along with their 3-year-old, Brayden, just welcomed in a new member to their family. Tallulah Grace was born on February 16th at Michelle & Matt's home (yes, it was a home birth - how awesome is that?!?!) and is doing wonderful!! Is she adorable or what??
Well on that note, my mind has a hard time deviating from the fact that there are less than 2 weeks until we leave for Florida!! And we can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
