Ray and his Granddaddy

Last Friday, Ray's sweet Granddaddy passed away.  He was 87, but as you can see from the picture below (that was taken this past summer during a trip to the Smoky Mountains with Ray's family) he didn't look a day over 67!  Ray has so many fond memories with his Granddaddy and everything happened so quickly that one can imagine this loss has been hard on him and the entire family.   Ray's Granddaddy was an accomplished, loving man.  Over the 15 years that I knew him he was always so proud of his family and especially his grandkids.  He loved to tell stories of the trips they took Ray on when he was a child.  He also loved to tell the story about how he was visiting Ray once when he was 3-4 years old and he begged his grandaddy to take him for a walk to see a backhoe.  Well, his granddaddy said they walked forever and finally they got there and he was so impressed that Ray walked all the way there and back with what they later found out was a bent back toe nail!   As you can read from his obituary (that he wrote), he was an avid hiker and preserved the trails for others to enjoy for years to come.  We went to Kingsport for the weekend and the services.  He will be missed and remembered by everyone who knew him for years to come.  

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