“A joyful heart is good
medicine.” – Proverbs 17:22
Back a couple of months ago, I instituted “Memory Monday,” where I could
talk about some favorite memories that came to mind and that I wanted to share
with you, my blog readers. These past couple
of months has been one of remembering many, many memories of my grandfather who
passed away last month. I’m always remembering
funny times and sayings that we had with him.
All of these memories constantly bring a smile to my face and, let me
just say, there was never a dull moment :)
When I close my eyes and remember him, I immediately remember the huge
smile and laugh that he had. He loved to
be funny and play jokes on people. He
also loved to laugh…even when things weren’t laughable.
For example, I think about a story my dad told us from when he got his
driver’s license. My dad was driving for
the first time with a driver’s license and his mom was in the car with
him. He stopped at a red light and then
was hit (not too hard, though) from the car behind him. Terrified as this was his first “car
accident,” my dad pulled over to the shoulder of the road and the car behind
him did the same. My dad gets out of the
car and turns around to see who this person was that had rear-ended him. Out from the other car steps my grandfather
(his dad) laughing uncontrollably!! My
dad said, “DAD! Why did you do
that!?!?!” My grandfather says, “I just wanted to see what would happen!”
After Lauren was born, he and my grandmother picked me & Meredith
up from the hospital to take us home.
The hospital was in downtown Louisville and our house was in the suburbs
of Louisville. After not hearing from
him in the time that it should’ve taken us to get home, my dad and mom became a
bit worried...and these were the days before cell phones. A couple of hours later, they get a phone
call from my grandfather. He says, “Son,
I turned the wrong direction and I’m not sure the right way to your
house.” My dad says, “Well, where are
you and I’ll help you get back.” My
grandfather says, laughing, “Well, I saw a sign a few minutes ago that said,
‘Welcome to Indiana.” Fun times, fun
times. :)
A little eccentric is a memorable way to describe him too. I’ll never forget the time we heard that he
had hit roadkill while driving down the road.
He simply got out, threw it in the back of his truck, and took it home
to have for dinner. Like who does
that??!?! He loved visiting the
homebound or people who hadn’t been to church in a while, but when he would
visit them and they wouldn’t be home, he’d just walk in their house and sit and
wait on them until they got back!! Home
invader! :)
He had a huge assortment of sayings that made us burst out laughing. We shared some of those on his celebration
service program. For those of you who
didn’t get one, I’ll share a few here…
- Old age is pit-e-ful.
- How do you feel? I feel with my fingers!
- Are you tired? Tired of what…livin’?
- Hey! Fodder.
- Well…that’s a deep subject.
- Guess what? Rabbit squats.
- The best part of a chicken is the skin, of course!
The past 6 years that he lived in the same town as us was for me &
my sisters, the most memorable out of all the years we’ve known him. There are SO many memories and funny times…too
many to share here. I’m so grateful that
he was able to come live in Tennessee near us.
I wouldn’t trade the past six years for anything. Many of the funny moments we remembered, we
were able to capture on video. We
compiled a bunch of the funny ones and showed them at his celebration service. He was a hoot and we love to re-watch these
videos. If you haven’t already seen this
video, I hope you’ll watch it so you can see his funny side too!
Proverbs 17:22 says, “A joyful heart is good medicine.” My grandfather definitely had a joyful
heart! In fact, “J.O.Y.” was his
initials, Joseph O. Young! So I guess joy was just in his
DNA! :) I’m so thankful for his joyful heart. His joy brought such joy to our hearts and I
will never forget these moments.
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