Got a call last Thursday that he was in the hospital (he's been in and out with lung problems). We drove up (they're outside Buffalo, we're in Scranton). By the time we got there he was doing much better - he had been dehydrated the fluids were doing him worlds of good. We stayed for a couple nights but had to leave - we had left the kids with neighbors.
We got a call late Sunday that he had taken a turn (his kidneys had failed) and before we could leave again he had died. My brother and I headed back together for the services. He wasn't doing well for the past few years. His hands were so arthritic that he couldn't feel them, macular degeneration (or, as my grandmother would say "immaculate congeneration") had made him effectively blind and he was, as he put it "deaf in one ear and couldn't hear out of the other" (a bout of shingles had burst his right eardrum). He had leukemia and his left lung had collapsed several times in the past year. His father and mother ran a cook-tent for various carnivals and his father, Carolton had some success as a singer and songwriter. When not in school my grandfather worked the shows doing whatever needed to be done. He left school in 1943 to enlist in the army and served for just under two years with the 256 Field Artillery Battalion. They ended up on Omaha Beach on June 7th where he drove a 1/4 ton truck transporting wounded from the front lines to field hospitals. Over the next two years his battalion reached the outskirts of Berlin and ended up in Stuttgart. When he came back he married my grandmother (they recently celebrated their 61st anniversary) and moved into his parents' home in Tonawanda, NY where they built out the attic into an apartment. He worked as a machinist and raised two children in the same house. When my parents got married we moved into the same attic apartment where we lived until I was 12. He was very active in the community being a member of the American Legion, the Masons, the Star Camping Group, Last Man's Club, Tonawanda Senior Center, the Salvation Army, Tonawanda Senior Travel Club and "The Barge Men" singing group. He was fixture in his later years, sitting on his porch and waving happily to everybody that passed. He was honored with several services: the American Legion, the Masons and a military service. The flag from that service will be donated to the Veterans Association where it will be flown over the Tonawanda Veterans Memorial. He was a strong, tall man and honestly giving and kind (not the "now that he's dead we'll make up good things" giving and kind). He was always the calm at the center of my family's many ridiculous feuds and was one of the very few that refused to take sides. We didn't always agree but we never fought. I'm going to miss him. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:253069 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
