This ones for you Grandpa

This past week has not been easy.
I am thankful to my wonderful design teams for being patient with my absence and understanding my need to take a little time off.

On Thursday, May 16 at about 8:30 pm my Grandpa Veldink passed away.  I found out Friday morning from my mom and felt my world crash in around me.

Growing up we didn't see much of my grandparents, but it was always my favorite place to go.  Their home was always radiating with love, warm and cozy and smelled of something fabulous baking in the oven.  A grandparents house through and through.  I'd always get excited pulling into their driveway and see Grandpa sitting in his favorite rocking chair in front of the window.  He was always there, never failed.

The joy that greeted us at the door was always so heart warming.  Of course, then the shouting would start because Grandpa was deaf from working in factories growing up and couldn't hear anything...though somehow he always heard what Grandma had to say :)

And then we would sit down to eat.  If there is one thing that will always remind me of Grandpa Veldink, it's the Lord's Prayer.  He started every meal with it.  I can still hear him saying it in my head with his unique gruff voice.  It's hard to describe, but I can't think of the Lord's Prayer without hearing Grandpa's voice.

With him passing, I wanted to make something to remember him by.  While Grandpa will always be in my heart and I will always look back on my childhood memories with him: riding tandem bikes around the campground, falling asleep to the static on the radio because he couldn't hear what was playing, sitting in their living room listening to stories about their childhood or the details that went into building their house; I wanted something that represented them.  Something that pretty much screamed Grandpa and Grandma.

I made this, not with the intention of it being a card, but with the plan to put it into a scrapbook project that I am working on to tell the story of all of our families.

It pretty much is Grandpa and Grandma in a nutshell.  I love the vintage yet rustic feel of it all because that's pretty much how it felt walking into their house.  The green reminds me of all the fields they had around their place.  They were farmers while my mom was growing up and built a house right next to that farm after they sold it.

Of course, the focus is on the Lord's Prayer printed in the middle.  I printed it onto patterned paper so that the tone stayed neutral.  The pattern behind the prayer reminds me of the pattern that they had carved into their living room ceiling.  It was so mesmerizing to look at.  Little rainbow type swirls formed into a spiral on the ceiling.  They would sit and talk about how they watched the young man up on the ladder swipe each and every one of those arches, going round and round until the whole ceiling was covered.  It was amazing!

I wrapped a piece of lace that I pulled from my Grandma's sewing cabinet around the middle and made a large bow with it as well.  Which I then topped with a twine flower (to represent all the hay they had in their barns) and a green paper button.  The pearls were added last.  It just needed something a little more and Grandma always wore pearls.

While my focus was to make something to remember Grandpa with, I think this fits the bill perfect to remember them both as a whole.

Grandpa was 94, in love with the Lord, and in love with caramel frappe's from McDonald's.  I know God welcomed him with open arms and took all the pain and suffering that he was going through away.  I am going to miss him but I know we will see each other again.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

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