Papa

We're all pretty heartbroken this holiday season.  Papa passed away the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  He was only 64.  He had a blood clot that moved to his lungs.  He had leukemia and was in the process of finding out how bad it was.  Turns out that it was bad and wouldn't have given him much longer.  So this was a quicker and better way for him to go.  But it was sudden and awful.  We spent a week in LaGrande with family, which was nice.  Everyone is pretty shocked and we miss him more than words can say.

Papa was the best.  He was always smiling and looking for ways to help others.  The first time I played cards with the Hibbert clan, it stood out to me how nice Ritchie was to me because he would root for me and congratulate me if I won.  He loved to take the kids to the mountain to play.  I love this picture of his latest project up there-building a tree fort for the grandkids.  His brother, Milo, spoke about his childhood at the funeral.  I want to hear more-there were great stories about his free range upbringing.  This past year he was sending regular texts to his kids of favorite scriptures. He really lived his religion.  I kept saying to Eric that when people pass away we tend to make them out to be saints, but Ritchie really was a saint, and we aren't exaggerating or embellishing.   We love him and will miss him tons.