Saying goodbye to an 'impressive' gentleman

One of the most impressive men I have ever known died Monday.

On my way to work in the evening to finish out the day, my mom called.

My grandfather, or "Papaw," had died.

He had been in the hospital for a little more than one week.

Recently, he learned he had stage 4 lung cancer. The diagnosis was not good. He had gone through this before with my grandmother, or "Nana."

But my Papaw had defeated cancer before. And for some reason, I kept thinking he would beat it again.

But this time, it was different. He was one of the toughest fighters I ever knew. But this battle proved too much.

Two weekends ago, Merry, James David and I traveled to Spencer to spend time with family. We went to Papaw's home, where he was sitting in his recliner, watching television.

He wasn't doing well, but he didn't really want to discuss that. He was more concerned with what was going on with each person that stepped into the room.

While James David may never remember Papaw, he met him. Many times. Only days after James David was born, my Papaw came to our home with my mom and dad. While there, he got to hold James David for a four generation photograph, a treasure which sits in our family room.

Many times, Papaw would come to our house with my parents and we'd sit around and talk about what was going on.

Papaw got to be around James David for his first Christmas, practically all of his first holidays.

And I'm proud of all of this. As he's growing up, James David will always see the pictures of Papaw in the house. He'll ask about him and I'll enjoy talking about him.

I will miss my Papaw.

But I'm proud to have known him. And I'm proud he got to meet my son.