A thank-you, a lifetime in the making
To some, you're Mom & Dad. To others, you're Nana & Papa. To all of us, your love, support, and care have shaped our lives in countless ways.
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A thank-you, a lifetime in the making
You never made your sacrifices loud. You just quietly went without, so that we never had to. You picked up the extra shift, gave up the thing you wanted, and somehow always made it look easy.
Then you did it all over again as Nana and Papa, opening your home, your time, and your hearts to a whole new generation, loving the grandkids the way you loved us.
Thank you. For all of it. With all our love
Where it all began
Before the grandkids and the road trips, before the camping trips and the full house, there were just the two of you, choosing each other, and lighting something that's never gone out since.
A family tradition
Some families have a recipe. Ours has a whole production line, and Papa runs it. From the old hand-crank grinder to a grill loaded end to end, brat day is one of the ways this family says "come home."
Wind in their hair
Helmets on, the open road ahead, and each other for company. Some of their favorite days were the ones spent riding together, no particular place to be.
Home is where you park it
Corn on the grill, the camper tucked into the trees, and a quiet lake just down the path. Camping was where this family slowed down and simply enjoyed being together.
To some of us
Long before we were grown, we were your kids. You taught us to work hard and to love harder, you cheered the loudest and worried the quietest, and you turned an ordinary house into the one place we always knew we belonged. Everything good in us started at your table.
To the rest of us
Then the house filled up all over again. Ballgames and road trips, penguins and brats, diner booths and bear hugs in the hallway. You gave the boys a Nana who never missed a moment and a Papa whose arms were always open. To them, your home has always been the very best place to be.
Walking it together
Dad, cancer asks more of you than anyone should ever have to give, and you meet it the way you have met everything, with quiet strength and a stubborn kind of hope. The long days, the hospital rooms, the waiting. You do not face any of it alone.
Mom is right beside you. We stay close. And through every uncertain hour, the Lord is nearer still, holding what we cannot, carrying us when our own strength runs thin. This road is not finished, and neither is the goodness that walks it with you both.
The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.Deuteronomy 31:8
The life you built
The camping trips, the road trips, the birthdays, the ordinary afternoons that turned out to be everything. Tap any photo to see it full size.
Two of the greatest roles ever played
You raised us with everything you had, and a lot you didn't think you had.
Then you gave up the quiet, easy years you'd earned, and chose to sacrifice all over again.
What it really cost
You'd never add it up yourselves, so we will.
Then and now
From all of us
Mom & Dad · Nana & Papa
A few words
Notes left here by the family, for the two of you to read whenever you like.
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