Originally, I started my weekly (for the most part) entry on Sunday, January 23rd. It was a fairly normal Sunday morning with the exception that my big kids had spent the night with their aunt & cousins in Lexington so we were leaving a little early to get them & then go to church. I'd spent the last couple of days collecting some cute snow day pictures to post along with my snow day entry (which will come...)but didn't have time to get it all finished. We headed to Lexington to get the kids and then on to church.
Isn't it funny how your life can change with in a split second with a phone call? As we everyone was loaded up to come home & got on the road, we recieved a call that my grandfather had passed out with chest pains & an ambulance had been called. I told myself that he could pull out of this, however, deep down in the pits of my stomach I knew it wasn't good. We received a phone call minutes later that confirmed that feeling from deep down-he didn't make it.
Robert F Burden (Bobby) was a man that certainly made his mark on all that he came into contact with, be it church, community organizations, the farm and definately his family. He worked hard & expected the same out of others. He always had kind word & if not, he didn't say it out loud :) If you've met him, you know that he always had a story to tell. He was proud of his service in the Army and many of his stories reflected his experiences. He was preceeded in death by my grandmother Betty, who died in August 2009.
My grandparents had been together for over 50 years (no one knows for sure because my grandmother did not want anyone to know her age and the were married young). Their relationship was always one I watched because if you've been together for that long, I think there's something to be learned from that! :) I remember one morning, I had spent the night with and gotten up and gone to the kitchen. While Betty stood at the stove, Bobby came up behind her, hugged her and then pinched her on the bottom! She said, "Bobby! Stop that! Kristin will see you!" At the time, I was in my teens (maybe 15 or so) and he replied "Well, she's 15 and if that's the first time she's seen it there's a problem!" Ha! How funny! He would also tell me that you have to be picky about who you date because once you're involved, you can't always help who you fall in love with. He later walked me down the aisle at my own wedding.
Those are just two little memories of an entire lifetime. This has been a bitter sweet week thus far. Our family is very close, with dinners here, a party there and remembering to celebrate life. The last year and a half holds many great memories with the new babies and special times, but I also know that he missed and would have loved to share those special times with my grandmother. I believe that he is doing that now. While his death has left a void here on Earth in the hearts of many, he has completed his time here and is now spending his time in Eternity.
