FreiFam: Grandpa Frei

I have been putting off this blog post for a long time now... well about 3 months. I don't know if I am just hoping that if I don't blog about it he will come back because I am not ready to face the reality that he isn't, or if my heart has just been to broken to write about it? As I put these pictures together, my heart is heavy. Landon Hafen Frei was a great man, the last of that dying breed you could say. He was a farmer, rancher, husband, father, brother to name a few, but to us he was a Grandpa and a dang good one!

Grandpa was always there for us, I know he loved us and that means so much.

On Sunday, October 30th 2011 we lost him. He had been to Sacrament Meeting at Church, came home checked on Grandma and then decided he didn't feel well. Vicki found him after she got home from Church. She was going down to read them the article that was put in the paper that very day about their 75th Wedding Anniversary. The next few hours are a blur... we went to the hospital where we found out he had a brain aneurism. It's crazy to say we were shocked that a 95 year old man was going to die, but we were. He was so healthy and strong. His heart was the last organ to stop, it just wouldn't stop beating. That I am sure is a testament to his garden full of fruits and vegetables. The vegetables he ate everyday of his life, the ones I will be eating a lot more of. :) He passed with his family surrounding him, and I know he was welcomed on the other side with open arms.

I had never seen Gavin so sad. He was like a walking zombie. He was not really with us mentally those first few days. Grandpa Frei was everything to him. He had taught him so much. From the time he was a little boy he spent pretty much every minute he could with Grandpa. Fixing water lines, riding for cows, sleeping at the Dutchman ranch, pruning peach trees, picking squash were some of Gavin's fondest memories with his Grandpa. He was able to speak at the funeral and did an amazing job.

Grandpa has left a legacy for each of us to follow. I hope to work a little harder and endure to the end because that is exactly what he did. Look at this posterity, something he was very proud of.