Our family was hit hard with the passing of one of the strongest members of our family. My wifes Pap “Moose” passed at the ripe old age of 87 fighting the whole way to the pearly gates. He was a vibrant man who welcomed everyone in with a kind smile regardless of where you came from. So, now I believe would be a good time to talk about him and give this man a shout out.
Pap was an interesting breed in his own right who believed he could do anything regardless of who told him not to due to his age. That man worked up until the day he left us in one form or another. Whether it be mowing grass, storing the snow blower, decorating for the holidays, or planting flowers the guy didn’t like to sit still and he rarely asked for help but when he did you helped him. My wife and I used to help pap with all sorts of stuff, even with something as small as backing the Tracker in the shed for the winter with each time his statement being “I’d do it but I’m just to damn old to do it.” Those days were always nice outings though, my wife got time to spend with her Gram while Pap and I yelled back and forth to each other (because he couldn’t hear) while simultaneously getting our hands dirty. A strange phenomena is that it never seemed to rain when he needed help outside.
My most recent project Pap and I did was the replace the sump pump in the basement of his house. This old pump had been grinding a way for awhile and Pap had thought a short had ended the pumps life. So as needed he headed off and found a new pump and asked me to help him put it in. We did our due diligence of pulling the pump up after disconnecting everything and then prepping to put the new one in. What gave me a deep insight into this mans thinking was what was connected to the outflow of the pump after we pulled it out of the pit. This pump had probably four different threaded pipe fittings attached to one another to fit between the dump pipe going out of the house and the outflow coming out of the pump. This cobbled together “pipe” consisted of two pvc fittings, a cast iron fitting which was rusted, and a valve fitting, just because it fit. It worked, it was ugly, but it worked. But this made me think that that’s how this guy probably grew up, if he couldn’t make it pretty he could at least make it functional. However if he could make something pretty it was going to be perfect in his eyes or to the best of his abilities. This is how Pap did a lot of things to keep his standard of living going for his whole life and keep his wife, children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and friends happy. In the end we used that same “pipe” on the new pump because it didn’t leak and, well, it worked and we later found out it might be the electrical socket the pump was plugged into that was the problem.
He was never far from being a loving person either. He would always find a way to think of all of his friends and family in one form or another. My focus from Pap was a shoe and shirt depository. If Pap picked something up from the store to wear, and didn’t like it, he’d always ask me if I wanted it before it’d be shipped off to the goodwill. Rarely did I ever turn anything down and I usually put everything he gave me to work. I think I’m down to two shirts and maybe three pairs of shoes. His other family members were supplied with equal focus such as deer baloney for the hunters, tractor rides for his great grand children, tools for his handy relatives, and memories for his friends. Always finding at least five minutes for everyone was one of Paps true shining features that will be sorely missed.
Even despite all of Paps ailments his memory never faltered. He could recollect his memories like a well established bookkeeper and recount stories that would usually end the entire room erupting in laugher with Gram just rolling her eyes and Pap having a huge grin on his face with his feet propped up in his chair.
I’m gonna miss the guy I’m not going to lie, I didn’t know him nearly as long as the rest of the family and am just a blip in comparison but he was fun to talk to and entertaining to be around to the point that I wont ever forget him. So here’s to Moose, rest easy we’ll all see you again someday.
The High Five Discount 