Remembering a grandfather on Mother's Day. And there's nothing wrong with that.

My blog buddy, Anita, emailed me about something and made this remark in her email regarding Mother's Day.

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I'm sure she will be wearing a white rose in church tomorrow.  ...That is one memory I have of Mother's Day in church:  everyone wearing a red rose if mother was alive, white if dead.  Mother used to tell me to wear pink.....

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A memory came back to me regarding my children's grandfather.  His name was Paul Smith and he attended church regularly with the children's grandmother.  He was in fact a deacon at the church.  He was there so much, in fact, that he depended quite a bit on his wife to remind him of what might be going on during the service if his mind drifted or if he dozed off.  He'd heard every sermon many times.

This was Mother's Day.  He was sitting there beside her in church, mind adrift, when the preacher decided to honor the mothers who were all in church with their red or white roses pinned to their chests.  Preacher gave them a lot of praise and then asked the mothers to all stand for recognition.

Ooops!  Paul Smith saw his wife stand up.  He knew what to do.  He just stood up too!  The church congregation howled and laughed.  The preacher probably cracked up too.  The only one who didn't think it was funny was the wife standing beside him.

He was a great person and he told this story about himself a whole lot better than I can.  He laughed at himself and went with joy through life.  He was the best grandfather that a child can have.  The following pictures show him with two grandkids on a fishing trip. 

The pictures show the apparently disappointed grandchild with the size of the fish ...

or the sliminess of the fish...

But it also shows the beaming grandfather who is having a great time with the grandkids. 

He's busy teaching a child how to fish with an old fishing pole.  He's loving his grandchildren!

He has about the same expression here as he had in the church on Mother's Day.  Here's a tribute to Paul Smith, my children's grandpa!  He's gone now and missed by the whole city of Searcy Arkansas if they remember him.