Garold Swartz

My Grandfather died September 25th. These are the words I shared at his funeral on Friday, September 29th.

A few years ago my sons and I were returning from a visit to my Grandfather. Paul, my youngest son, asked why Grandpap spent so much time reading the Bible. My older son, John, who was a college student, replied, "He's cramming for finals!"

Well, if there would have been any finals I'm sure he would have passed them!

While I may have known my Grandfather for 40 years (Okay, more like 50 years)
Many of you have known him much longer. Especially those of you who were his children: Ken, Nelson, and Gary – his sons; and Rhoda, his daughter.
Knowing him even longer are his surviving siblings.

What I speak of today comes from the deep well of my own memories. Word of his death served as a stick reaching in and stirring up some of those wonderful memories that I wish to share with you today.

Grandpap loved Baseball
Some of my earliest memories of Grandpap – Pap Pap as I called him in those days – are of him tossing a wiffleball to me to catch. Indeed, after a while we would be playing wiffleball with cousins and uncles. I can remember Uncle John and Uncle Gary talking about the various ball players they thought the best and who “dropped the ball” – literally sometimes – at a crucial moment in the last game.
In amongst the same shadows of memories, I recall him taking me to see Uncle Gary to play baseball and basketball. As I got a little older he would change our games of catch to include a real baseball and real leather gloves.

Grandpap did Shift Work at the Viscose
I didn’t get to see him as much as I would have liked because of his shift work at the Viscose. Often he would have to sleep in the day and we children were encouraged with hushing sounds to be quiet in the house that we would not disturb him.

Grandpap was a Farmer
But to me he was a farmer. After all he had a barn with a couple of cows and a tractor and crops to plant and harvest. Then there was the orchard with pears and apples – as well as the walnuts and cherries. Oh, there were the grapes as well.
Again, I think back to those early days and I can still remember winter mornings, while it was still dark, when I would put on my coat and boots (with a little help) and walk with Grandpap to the barn to feed those cows that later I would learn would feed us!

During the time that we lived with my grandparents, my father built a house next door for us to live in. So I had plenty of time to hang around making myself useful and maybe getting into a little bit of mischief!

I remember him paying me a Kennedy 50 cent piece for pulling up unwanted mustard plants out of a clover field. I’m not sure if he really wanted the mustard gone or if he wanted to keep me busy that morning, but I held onto that Kennedy piece for a long time.

The harder work included the potato harvests and what I refer to now as the stone crops. It seems every year after plowing the fields there were stones that had to be picked up and moved.

I remember one year when he pulled a Tom Sawyer on me. I was so fascinated with the tractor – just like most of my cousins were – but I was the oldest and I thought I should be able to drive the tractor. Well he did teach me the basics of driving the tractor and then he asked if I would like to drive it around on the field. I said “Of course!”

He went and got the manure spreader hooked up to the tractor and let me drive it back and forth on the field. It was fantastic. I was having the time of my life. Of course the manure was being flung all over the place and covered my back and head – but I was driving the tractor!

Afterwards I probably looked like one of those ads for Orbit Gum – Fabulous!

I began to appreciate his dry wit and sense of humor.

Grandpap was my First Barber
Grandpap was my first barber. I bet he was for many of my male cousins. Sitting on that stool in the basement while he would grab hold of my head with his big hand and just dare me to squirm! I cut my own hair now (can’t you tell) and I don’t do nearly as well as he did.

The last time I saw him in the basement he was sitting on the stool and Uncle Nelson was giving him a haircut – Grandpap wanted to be sure he looked sharp for Sunday worship.

The three of us posed for a picture that Sunday after church – come to think of it we were all wearing hats that day!

Grandpap was a Wood Worker
He loved to make things in his shop. He would make things to hang up. He would make things to stick in your garden or your yard. He would make you a whole village of little buildings for your window sill that included a house, a barn, a church, and a school and more.

Grandpap was a Gardner
He loved to garden. Maybe that is why he liked the Hymn In the Garden so much. Gardening was a way for him to stay connected with God and his creation.
It was a respect for God’s creation that could be seen in the way he gardened and farmed. It the time he would spend in the woods hunting or creating a place where families and church groups could have a picnic and a time of renewal.

Grandpap loved to Remember
Grandpap loved to reminisce about things. He would take us around and show us things that meant something to him.
Homes he had lived in.
The one room school house.
This church (photo of him smiling)
Pictures of him playing with the harmonica band.

Before his health began to decline he would carefully dress up on Sunday mornings and arrive early to be able to greet people as they came in. There may have been others designated as the official greeters for a given Sunday – but wanted to always be there as a doorman for the House of the Lord.

On many of those occasions he would insist on driving, and in that last year he had his driver’s license it could be a rather white-knuckle experience.

One day when we were looking at some old photographs he showed me a picture of his family’s old home in Wisconsin. A small house, it couldn’t have been more than a one roomer with a loft. He talked about the size of the family living in that house.

Jokingly, I asked him, “Grandpap! How in the world did your parents manage to keep having children with all of you hanging all over them at night like that?”

He frowned as he thought for a moment. Then with all seriousness he looked at me and said, “Well, come to think of it, there were those times that mom and dad locked us all outside!”

Memories of Grandma and Grandpap and Meals
It is hard to think back about Grandpap without thinking about Grandma. Where Grandpap was often quiet and reserved, Grandma was quite open and up front.
But if you were to ask me what immediately came to mind when I thought of them it would be meal time.

It would be Sundays coming home from church and smelling the chicken that grandma just finished frying – feeling my stomach growl and do somersaults while we were all squeezed together around the table. Grandpap would be saying the blessing and Uncle Gary would be eying the golden-fried breast at the top of the platter. Passing the food – so much of which had come from the garden. The corn was fresh from the field. The roast came from one of the cows recently slaughtered. The stewed tomatoes from a jar that had been canned during the previous years harvest.

It was what a good life looked like!

A life that he worked hard to make – for all of us.

Then there was the biggest meal of all – Thanksgiving!

The kitchen table would be moved and expanded from the den to the Living Room. And as big as it was it wasn’t big enough to hold everybody. When the chairs ran out stools and ottomans and a piano bench would be brought out and placed around that table. The table could not hold all of the food – not all at once. The Turkey, all of the vegetables, the mashed potatoes, the ambrosia, the 24-hour salad, and the pumpkin pies (plural!) Can’t you just smell the wonderful aromas wafting up from those precious memories?

It was there with the whole family gathered, talking and laughing – passing food and eating – that the evidence of the outpouring of God’s tremendous love and grace was evident.

Yes, thanksgiving was appropriately named.

God’s blessings were so great – we had much to be thankful for. Not the least of which were the care and devotion and work of Garold and Ida Mae Swartz.

Our Lord certainly loved meals. There are so many mentions of meal time in the Gospels. Why it is in the context of a holy meal that we are told specifically to recall his memory. He tells us he goes ahead to prepare a place for us and he desribes heaven in terms of a great banquet -- a wedding feast! I can just see grandma and grandpap. They are already seated at the table.

They are at the table holding a place for us.

Our Last Time Together
It was to be our last time together. While there was some confusion at first he looked at Jo Anne and said “I love all of my grandchildren.”
Jo Anne led us in singing some hymns – grandpap knew the words and sang along.
We sang Amazing Grace, Blessed Assurance, and In the Garden.

Afterwards we were sitting around in a circle and we had a big plastic ball that he would hit back to us. For a while the two of us just bounced it back and forth between us. He was smiling.

Now that I think back on it, I realize that it was our last game of catch.

We have been blessed – all of us – with so many wonderful memories.
May the sanctify those memories.

May they always bless us.