A few weeks ago, while we were in Scotland, grief struck our family. Our daughter Karen’s father-in-law, had a stroke and passed away about a week later. Entirely unexpected. I guess tragedy often is.
The service was planned so the whole country would honor Stanley – Memorial Day weekend. As befitting a great guy.
The service was in Keene, Texas, where he and his family lived for the last 42 years! We decided to make it a Tesla Texas Trip instead of flying.
Cherryl and I left on Thursday, right after I completed one small task… The tires on the Tesla were due to be rotated, and it made sense to get that done before a thousand mile road trip. I could have Discount Tire do it (They’re awesome) but I wanted to do it myself. After storing the new camping trailer at good friend George’s place, I gathered up some tools and put the Tesla on the lift. Once the tires were all in place we set out south to Keene.
We chose to do the trip down over two days. At one charging stop, we took a walk to look for interesting birds. Except we didn’t think to bring binoculars. We heard some birds, but couldn’t see the exotic ones. Sigh.
We did see a muddy pond, something that might be a waterfall with enough rain, and lots of pretty flowers.
Thursday night’s hotel was a bit of a dump, but the rest of the weekend was spent in a very nice little hotel adjacent to Spinks’s Airport, in Burleson, Texas. Stanley was an aircraft mechanic, and spent lots of time working at this airport, so this felt rather special.
I have no pictures of the service itself, but it was very well done. Lots of pictures and stories about a wonderful man. Stanley lived with plenty of adventure! He ran mission aircraft systems in extremely remote countries, like Papua New Guinea. He ferried an airplane from the States to Africa. He could fix anything mechanical. He loved God, family and flying.
His family and ours had a few interesting things in common. Both families left for foreign countries with 8 month old babies. Both had a younger sister born overseas. And of course, each family raised two awesome kids!
Here’s a very old photo of the family: Laura, Susan, Loren and Stanley.
Afterwards we had the privilege of meeting up with lots of folks we haven’t seen in ages. (Isn’t that what funerals tend to facilitate?) Loren (Stanley’s son, our daughter’s husband) ran around with three other guys a lot while in school. It was fun to see them all together again! The guy I know best in the Fabulous Four (my term) is Adrian… Ok, I know Loren far better, but Adrian is second. It was good to get caught up with him.
Another of the Fabulous Four is Tewe, a great big guy with a wonderful smile. He was here with his whole family – it was fun to meet them!
After the memorial service, friends provided a dinner for the family. Below are Susan and her sister Gail, and their kids.
They even allowed us to get into the group picture.
A very special moment came after the service, when we walked to the building for dinner, we saw a beautiful rainbow stretched across the sky, on our path. I think it was a wonderful reminder of hope, that we can look forward to seeing our loved ones again in a new world.
