Enjoy yourself - It's later than you think

Greetings

Sigh, another week and another sad blog to write. Regretably I have to announce that my stepgrandfather passed away yesterday. Gene was a great man who was always friendly to me and although we weren't super close I'm going to really miss him.

I've spent the last few hours thinking about how different his life was from my own. He was in the army when he was my age and saw more than I can even imagine. I had the pleasure to accompany him and the rest of the family to a Rememberance Day service a few years back and it was a truly moving experience. The sacrifice that his generation made often seems so far away that it it feels more like a movie than reality to me. Seeeing Gene watch the ceremony and the look on his face as he remembered his dead friends was something that I will never forget.

My favorite memory of Gene was when I was thirteen and he offered to show me some of the grappling moves that he learned in the army. I was full of the type of cockiness that only a teenager can possess and figured that he was too old to really show me so I would pretend that the moves actually hurt. Haha, within seconds I was shouting uncle and reevaulating my perceptions about the physical strength of senior citizens. I'm still not sure how someone sixty years older than me managed to "beat me up" but what can you do. :)

Here's a photo of Rick, Gene and my brother Dustin.

For those of you keeping score at home that's two family members in as many weeks. I'm kind of at a loss for words and am going to quit typing now.

Eugene Kroetsch:1922-2006

We'll miss you.

Cheers

Shayne