Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Sunday, January 08, 2006

My Grandfather, Lowell Ira Pitcher, passed away yesterday morning after a long, debilitating battle with Alzheimer's disease. I've known this was coming for a couple of years and his passing is a mercy for both him and my family. While I'm not at the point where I can write a true eulogy for him I can say that he was an amazing man. His first name was Lowell but everyone called him Pitch. When various and sundry authors write about "the greatest generation" or the "builder" generation, my grandfather was a member of that generation that typified everything they did. He rode the rails as a 12 year old hobo during the depression. He served on the USS Arizona as a radio man until asthma almost killed him in early 1941. He moved to northeastern Nevada and set up several businesses and in his spare time bought run down houses, fixed them up and then sold them for a big profit. He worked as a mechanic on the railroad after he sold his businesses until he retired to Arizona. I've never known a man with the drive and energy he had. His mind was always working on a solutioin to something and he was always, always always building something. He was handiest man I think I've ever seen aside from maybe my Dad. After my parents were married, they and my Grandparents bought an old railroad town (yes, the whole town) and used moved the buildings to build a cabin in the mountians and a house in Elko.

My most cherished memory of my Grandfather is a week when I went to visit my Grandparents at their cabin in Lamoille, Nevada. The cabin sits in the Ruby Mountians which look a lot like the Alps I'm told. Each morning, he and I would get up early, get our fishing rods and reels and head down to the creek that runs through the canyon to fish for trout. He taught me how to river fish with waders. We caught something every morning and then went home to have fish for breakfast and then spent the day working around the property, doing some hiking and talking about life. We didn't always get along because we are both strong willed people but I never doubted his love for me, nor how proud of me he was.

He and my Grandmother had a huge influence on who I've become. They reinforced everything my parents taught me, even when my parents lives sometimes didn't. I don't smoke because my Grandparents didn't and I've stayed physically active all of my life because my Grandparents did. They showed me the grand scale of America and instilled in me a love of traveling across it's varied vistas. They were pioneers that never lost that spirit and they passed that spirit onto their oldest grandson. My Grandad showed my that all of the old ways society wanted men to look at women were silly in how he lived with my Grandmother. He encouraged her to go back and get her education when she decided to do that. She let her handle her own money and he let her work her own jobs. Rather than trying to reign in her energy and drive he allowed her to express herself in her own wonderful way. They had one of those loves of the ages. Not the storybook kind where nothing ever seems hard and is actually a Disney storybook fake but a real love that carried them through those difficult stages of life when they didn't always get along and they didn't always agree. You could see their love in everything they did; even when he badgered my randmother to take her medicine and made her angry you could tell it was because he loved her.

I've missed my Grandfather for a while now. Several years back he began to lose his eyesight and that was a hard blow for him, but the slow fade of Alzheimer's is what took him away. I've missed his fire and his energy and that great crooked smile he had. I'm a very lucky person to have known him.

Now I pray for my Grandmother whose heart is broken and who must go through the rest of her life without the man she has known for over 60 years. She's an incredibly strong woman but her hurt is deeper than I can possibly imagine. Last night would have been the first night she has slept in her bed knowing that her husband will never share it with her again and that nearly breaks my heart. I have no doubt that they will be reunited on the other side and will love each other in the light and love of the Lamb Himself. For now though there is sorrow and loss and grief as there should be for such a man's passing from this world.

For now our family will lament and we will be cleansed through our grief. We will be brought closer to our God who will comfort us and we will remember Pitch's life.

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