Tears of Sadness or Joy

Case number one.

I told you there was a couple cases here.

Case number one.

Byron S. Rigg was my mother's dad.

He was always taking me and my brothers home to help him on his farm.

He was a very humorous man.

And as we would help him bale hay, gather tree sap to make maple syrup, help him build several houses, or whatever needed to be done on the farm, he would get us laughing.

It didn't seem like work.

It was fun to spend time at Grandpa's farm.

Grandpa Byron had a laugh that came down from his toes, and it would make you laugh with him.

In 1986, at the age of 80, he sadly passed away.

When I was 27 years of age, Chris and I would have been married six years And with our two children, we were very busy.

As I explained the last time I come up here to speak last year, that we were excommunicated from our Lutheran church due to a lack of funds and not going to church.

But we still believed in God.

My grandpa, during his last few weeks, was in Alma Hospital, dying of congestive heart failure.

At the time, I was working in Alma at the local stamping plant.

It was a blessing that the Lord provided me with a job close by the hospital.

During those weeks, I spent almost every lunch hour with him, as my grandpa, during his time there.

The day came when we knew Grandpa wasn't going to make it through the day.

And he was losing, that's difficult even after all these years, and he was losing his fight to stay alive.

My supervisor gave me the afternoon off to be with him.

I remember it as though it was yesterday.

The nurse told us it wouldn't be much longer.

His breathing was irregular.

My cousin Jeannie was holding his left hand, and I was holding his right hand.