What is the weight of 94 years? How heavy does that feel, resting on shoulders that bore the witness of so much life?

I can't even imagine the creep and crawl of years for this man who had silver in his hair and gold in his heart - how he did so much and loved so hard and carved himself a little place dear in my soul. Soft and gentle but with the strength of the sea - strength to carry through until heaven knocked too hard.

I think of him in tones of blue, like a sky of wispy clouds, all this love that asked for nothing as he slipped away peacefully from dreaming straight into the arms of Jesus.

I hear him laugh and it is like air and it shakes his whole body but hardly makes a sound and how he would pat my head and call me 'sweet girl' and the tickle of the long grass by his barn that time in Alberta...

I imagine him, reunited now with my grandmother, eyes sparkling like they always did, "Elsie, darling, have I got a story to tell you!"

Sleep, dear man. Rest. Dance. Play. May the legacy of your goodness carry on, just as those you've left behind will never stop loving you.

Farewell, Grandpa.

You're in my heart forever.