Dear Lyle...

Did you know how special you were? How incredible we thought you were? Our snack sneaking chatty chipmunk, so funny and sweet. Oh how many times have we begun a conversation and once you got started you could just go on and on; we'd step away or into the next room and still you'd talk, returning minutes later to find you...still talking. I think it's great you just kept going, knowing we'd catch up.

You enjoyed life, simple and straight-forward. Nothing was better for you than being under the hood of an old car with a couple of your kids...unless it's taking a drive in the old car with a couple of your kids. Or taking a drive in the old car with a couple of your kids while having a snack, preferably cake.

You knew your treasures were not of silver and gold and paper currency but in the smiles of your wife, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Riches packed into a tender hug or the quickest of "high fives".

I don't think you really knew how much you touched our lives. How a piece of you is tucked away in each one of us. We'll hold onto this piece of you and every time we gather together, we'll bring out all these little bits and we'll have you with us once again.


I'm so glad I knew you.


With love,

~Beth



P.S. Grandpa Lyle, now that you're in heaven, please make time to find Hamster Jerry so neither of you is lonely...





The Legend of the Dragonfly

“In the bottom of an old pond lived some grubs who could not understand why none of their group ever came back after crawling up the lily stems to the top of the water. They promised each other that the next one who was called to make the upward climb would return and tell what had happened to him. Soon one of them felt an urgent impulse to seek the surface; he rested himself on the top of a lily pad and went through a glorious transformation which made him a dragonfly with beautiful wings. In vain he tried to keep his promise. Flying back and forth over the pond, he peered down at his friends below. Then he realized that even if they could see him they would not recognize such a radiant creature as one of their number.

The fact that we cannot see our friends or communicate with them after the transformation which we call death is no proof that they cease to exist.”