The Colonel

The day before we planned to drive back to Virginia from Florida, we received a phone call from Tanner's mother telling us that her father had passed away. Tanner's grandfather was an incredibly amazing man, and I wish I had known him earlier on in his life. We decided to fly out to Utah for the funeral. We drove back to Virginia as scheduled the morning of the 3rd, got home at 9pm, unpacked, repacked, and we were on a plane by 11am the next morning. It was wonderful to see all of our family, despite the somewhat sad circumstances.

Grandpa White was a Colonel in the United States Air Force, and lived and served in many different places throughout his life. He fought in World War II, including at the Battle of the Bulge, and many other notable conflicts. During the last few years of his life, he had started to lose his memory, but I will never forget some of the war stories he still told us in such great detail. Tanner and I went and stayed with him one night when we were engaged. He asked us in his quiet, low raspy voice if we were going to sleep in the guest room. Somewhat surprised, we replied "no Grandpa, we are not married yet", to which he said, with a smile and twinkle in his eye, "I hope you can wait that long." Tanner and I were laughing so hard, I don't even know if we responded.

Because of his military status, he received full military honors, and many of his friends from the military came to both the funeral and viewing. I have always had a soft spot for older people, and I just could not take my eyes off of this group of men in their uniforms. You could just tell they had had some amazing life experiences. I wanted to sit down with each of them and just listen.


The funeral was wonderful. We were all glad to be together as a family to celebrate the life of this wonderful man. All of the grandsons were pallbearers and Tanner's mom received the flag that draped his coffin. It was a long day for Clark and by the time we returned to the chapel for dinner, he was tuckered out. We were so glad we were able to be a part of this experience and it is one we will cherish forever.