Grandpa Burgess

This post is a little late in coming, but my grandpa, George Dale Burgess, passed away on September 14th, at 94 years old.  He had a stroke, and then got pneumonia and was never able to recover.  My whole family made the trip to Lehi, Utah for the funeral.  The funeral was on Saturday, the 21st.  So we left on Wednesday night after school and work and drove part way to Flagstaff.  The motel we stayed in was a Super 8 and was way better than the previous motels we've stayed at there.  We will have to remember that for future reference.  Doing that took about four hours off our trip, but we still had a lot of driving to do on Thursday.  We found a vacation rental house in the Lehi area, and stayed there with Christy, Rob, Chad and Melanie's families.  It ended up being cheaper than a hotel and much more convenient for everyone.  We spent the day on Friday with family and at the fun center we visited a few months ago when we were in Utah.  The funeral on Saturday was very nice.  It made me a little sad to see my grandma.  I can only imagine how hard it would be to be separated from someone you've spent the last 70 or so years with.  I have such great memories of visiting my grandparents.  I will miss my grandpa, but I am happy that he has been able to move on to something far better.

My Mom and Dad with all of their children.

 

My family

My grandpa was an officer in the Navy during World War II.  So he had military honors at his burial.  After we were done at the grave side, I overheard someone behind me say that everyone should experience a military burial at least once.  I would have to agree.  It was very neat experience.  You feel a sense of pride in the person who served, and also for your country.  We should have prepared the little kids for the guns though.  But I'm not sure I realized that the several men with guns about twenty yards away were going to actually fire shots.  Not real shots... but the kids didn't know that and they were plenty loud and pointed at us.  The kids were pretty scared and very hesitant to uncover their ears afterwards.

Giving the precisely folded flag to my grandma, with Aunt Deonne and Dad at her sides.

On Sunday we woke up and headed out and drove the whole way back home without stopping overnight.  It was a long, all day trip that took about 12 hours, not including stops.  But the kids were really good and it didn't end up being too bad.  It was a quick trip to Utah, but it was worth going.

Here's grandpa's obituary, though I've already mentioned some of the info in it.  I wanted it posted here so it ends up printed in my blog book.