Papa's Place

It is with a heavy heart today that I think about God finishing the chapter about our dear Granddaughter's time here on earth. 8 months is such a short time for her to have made such an impact on our lives. Of course we are very saddened by the loss that we've experienced but the optimist in me won't let me stay sad for long as it amazes me to look back over this time and see how evident it was that God was very much present through this whole ordeal. Time and time again things would just fall into place and just work out better than if we would have been trying to make our own plans.

PRAISE GOD FOR HIS GOODNESS!!!

The service for Delia was amazing and just one of the many things that will live on in our memories of this special child of God.
I feel honored to have been able to have a small part of it with her eulogy and I just wanted to share that small part with those who were not able to attend.

DELIA'S STORY

HI, for those of you who may not know me my name is Mike Vandercar, I am Michele’s father.  I’m also proud to say that I am Papa to six lovely granddaughters and one grandson, I’m still hopeful of that boy girl ratio being improved as my wife Verna and I are anxiously awaiting the arrival of another grandbaby early next year.

My grandchildren have gotten to know me as quite a storyteller which I enjoy very much even though I can’t get Levi to believe all the stories I tell them.

With this said I would like to tell a true story to my newest Granddaughter Delia.   Some of you may already know this story but I would welcome you to listen in, for if this story had not unfolded the way that it has we would not be here today.

Once upon a time there were  two young people we will call them Mike, the son of Robert & Helen Jean Vandercar, and Verna the daughter of Albert & Verna Elser, my mother-in-law who I’m happy to say is with us here today.  One day Mike said to Verna “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” and asked her to marry him.  She said Yes, “I Will”.

The next thing you know they had three sons, Joshua, Luke & David.  Just when they thought that their family was complete God surprised them with another child, Michele, affectionately known to me as “Michele My Belle”  and what a blessing she was to this young family.

Mike went off to work and Verna stayed home to raise their family, that’s what you did in those days.  Michele’s dream for the future was to grow up and be a Mom just like her Mom.  Seasons passed until one day Michele met the love of her life one summer at Camp Lutherhaven.  This relationship flourished and faltered but eventually took root and lead us to August 2, 2008 one of the most bittersweet days of our lives as we gave up our little girl to James Rockhill so that they could start their new life together.

Again time marched on as it always does and soon Michele & James announced that they were going to add to our list of grandchildren and the next thing we knew we were headed to Georgia to welcome Eliza June into this world.

After several visits to Georgia we got the news of a deployment to the other side of the world and shortly after that news of more grandbabies on the way in Indiana, Minnesota and Korea.  Unfortunately as my father once said “God does not always want the old dried up flowers, sometimes he takes the first blooms”  We lost our Minnesota grandbabies as some of the first blooms and shortly thereafter learned of the plans that God had in store for Delia also.

As heartbreaking as this was for us the many “Words of Love” shared has helped us to remember that this is truly God’s plan and even though we do not and may never know his purpose we will openly accept it and “With a Little Help From My Friends”, which I’ll paraphrase to say with a lot of help from our dear friends and family, we will persevere and get through these troubling times.

Now I would like to direct my words towards my newest Grandbaby Delia,  Oh how I wish that I could hold you on my lap and tell you how much your Mommy and Daddy love you and how much they have done for you but it is not to be.  I will have to rely on my dear friend Jesus to hold you on his lap and tell you a true story of the best Mommy and Daddy that he gave to you.

Delia please know that Nana and Papa love you very much and are looking forward to meeting you and spending eternity with you in God’s house.

Early in the weekend I was thinking of making a post on the fourth stating that  Maggs, Macy, Georgia and I were the only ones in our immediate family that are still in Indiana to celebrate the holiday.  Well....they didn't do much celebrating.  Between the thundershowers and the fireworks they spent pretty much the whole weekend hovering around me.

Finally on Monday evening I put them all in their crates, hopped on my bike and went downtown to enjoy some of the celebration.

I started at D.T. Kirby's, what has become one of our favorite watering holes, for a 32 oz. Old Style and a sandwich that they call the Wedge.  Hot turkey, ham, and roast beef with motzerella, grilled onions and green peppers on homemade bread.  Yummy good.

Then a short walk down to Riehle Plaza to see the Lafayette Citizens Band and the Freedom Singers in a Stars & Stripes Celebration.

Which also included a performance by the Tippecanoe Fife & Drum Corps.

The whole time wishing that Nana would have laid out an outfit like this for me to wear so that I could have taken center stage dancing with this party-goer.

The dogs were fine in their crates with the stereo blasting so that they could not hear the fireworks and all in all it was a good weekend.

In bed listening to the Lutheran Hour this morning Pastor Klaus ended his sermon with the song Precious Lord. I knew the day was coming close, so I came down and got on my computer to reminisce for a moment on some of Nancy's, the memory keepers, blog. After reading her Feb. 9, 2010 post I had to make one more additional comment. Heaven Is For Real and thanks to Jesus someday we will be together again.

Shel posted these Halloween pictures of Eliza from this year and last year.

When I saw them I thought, Oh I should have gotten my costume together last year and gone to Georgia to go trick-or-treating with Eliza. I went into the basement the other day and this is all I could find that was left over from past Halloween costumes.

Then I decided to take a look and see if I could find a picture from the last time my pumpkin costume was used.  I couldn't find one so I had Steph email this one to me.

This was from 1985 and was quite a pumpkin patch.  So I guess the vines continue to grow and produce new fruit.

While I was looking for the Pumpkin Patch picture I found several others that I thought I would post just for the fun of it.  Hope you enjoy the memories as much as Verna and I have.

We'll start with Joshua as Cookie Monster from 1978

Verna, Joshua (??a devil ??), and Baby Luke (the angel) from 1979

Luke the clown, David the bunny and Joshua in my old cowboy clothes from 1981

A bat, a bug and a tiger from 1982.

Robot, witch, devil and a mouse in1983.

Army man, Sox player, scarecrow, and the tiger once more at Broken Arrow Campground.  David won a prize this year for his scarecrow costume.

We were camping with good friends that weekend who I thought needed to be in this review.

Jumping ahead to 1989 we have another cowboy, a good looking woman, m&m's and what I would call a Dancing Wafflebird.

A cowboy for the third time, Pirate, Davey Crockett and another mouse in 1990.

Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane.  I know we had tons of fun making these memories and are looking forward to making many more.

Checking out some of the other Vandercars on the net and came across this guy's blog. about Lewis Vandercar.

http://miamimemories.blogspot.com/2007/07/lewis-vandercar-miamis-andy-warhol.html

I remember reading about this once before on the web and I suppose Nancy will want to see if it is still sitting on this point.

but I had not seen these

I can't say that I would have agreed with all of Lewis's views on life and such but it seems like he would have been an interesting character.

Saw this at the state fair and the first thought that immediately came to mind was "Bitty Bug"

When you're in Fairbanks, Alaska and you decide to take a road trip your choices of where to go are pretty limited.  There are only three roads that will take you out of town.  One goes to the Southeast, one goes North, and one goes Southwest.  The guys in this VW took the Southeast route and ended up stopping at the campground we were at in Beaver Creek.  They looked like in another time they could have been on thier way to Max's farm in upstate New York.  I really liked their ride.

They were just out for a drive and to have some fun, which may not have been possible if not for the efforts of the guy and dogs that piloted this sled/buggy to the Worlds Fair in Chicago and then on to Washington DC to lobby for a road from the lower 48 up to Alaska.

For more interesting pictures, videos, and history of Slim Williams click on his name.