Goodbye Grandpa Schultz

I don't usually post personal stuff on here, besides "here's what we did today" type of things, but I found out that my grandpa died a few hours ago, and he deserves a blog post more than any of the frivolous stuff I usually write about.

Dancing with Grandpa Schultz at our wedding.

Grandpa Schultz was a farmer, hunter, and fisherman. He played a mean game of euchre; I still remember him calling trump on basically nothing ("right-nine all the time"). He and my grandma had seven kids and were married for over fifty years before she passed away ten years ago. My grandpa could build and fix anything, and he worked for General Motors for several years. He was the most helpful guy in the world, and he loved his kids and grandkids like crazy (he always cried when we said goodbye). And he liked to talk and tell stories-sometimes very long ones!

Goofy Grandpa Schultz-I love this picture of him!

Up until a couple of months ago, my grandpa was super healthy. He even had a full head of dark hair at age 90! But about six weeks ago he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos (from all the years working with GM), and he'd been declining ever since. Lots of the family was able to be with him in Michigan over the past week, and he's been under Hospice care in his own home for the past few days, so things went as "good" as they could have considering the circumstances. But I sure will miss my grandpa.

Video of Favorite Memories of Grandpa Schultz

Above is the link to a video my family (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) made last week for his 90th birthday, which was just a few days ago. They played it for him yesterday, and my mom said he was able to hear everyone's voices and feel the love. You're welcome to watch the whole thing if you want to, but I'd at least check out the first few minutes, because my brother made a really awesome intro using his bouncy ball collection!

Goodbye Grandpa Schultz-I love you!