Pawpaw

My grandfather (Pawpaw), Joseph Lynn Littrell, passed away last Saturday, May 15 at the age of 85. While his health had been deteriorating for some time, his death occurred suddenly while decorating my grandmother's grave with flowers. Though ironic in many ways, I find the circumstances beautifully poetic.

He will be sorely missed by all who knew him. He was one of the wittiest people I've ever known, and he had a way of drawing everyone in with his stories. Eldest of four children, abandoned as a child by his father during the Great Depression and left as the "man of the house" at a young age, sailor in the Navy during WWII, car and insurance salesman, father of two, widower at age 52 after losing his wife to metastatic breast cancer, remarried with the addition of a stepson, grandfather of nine, great-grandfather of five, Methodist, and democrat. My grandfather was all of those things and many more. I'm so very thankful that he was a believer and that we'll share eternity someday.

More than anything else, I'm saddened because Isaiah won't have the opportunity to know him as I did. I am so grateful, though, that Pawpaw got to meet Isaiah just three weeks before he passed. We took pictures of our four generations that weekend that I will post when I get them from my dad.

Chris and I drove down to Lawrenceburg on Sunday to join my family at my grandparents' house. Visitation was on Monday and the funeral was Tuesday afternoon. While the circumstances were difficult, we all really enjoyed being together and having so much quality time. The Army even flew Jared home from Iraq in time for him to attend the funeral Tuesday. The picture above is after the funeral on Tuesday. It's the first time all of my siblings have been together since the babies were born. It's sad that it took a death in the family to make that happen, but we're learning to take it when we can get it. It's amazing how much we've grown (are growing) in just the past year...Joe Littrell's heritage going strong!