(Great-Grandpa Clayton with Susannah, April 2007)
This morning my father called to inform me that Grandpa Vaughn Clayton died this morning at a care center in West Valley, Utah. He would have been 94 years old on November 27. Attendants believe he died around 4:00 a.m.
Dad and Mom Clayton, David, Hyea Won, Hyea Won's mother, Kaya and Sonya visited with Grandpa Clayton yesterday and took pictures of him. Dad mentioned he was lucid but weak. He has had Congestive Heart Failure and dementia for several years.
Some memories I have of my Grandpa Clayton include his white tickly mustache, his musk smelling cologne, and the smell of Halls cough drops, hearty hugs and kisses, fishing trips with boats he repaired and kept running himself in his shop, riding ATVs and on the back of his newest motorcycle, Christmas Eve dinners and program, Family Home Evening programs together, his special dialect: nippers (scissors), paramedic van (ambulance), stories of building Alliance Radio Tele-communication towers over seas (Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Greece, and the Holy Land travels), Skip-bo cards, Rummicub, etc...
He was a man who was able to teach himself to drive and fly (back in the days when obtaining a pilots license was easier than a drivers license) and believed in the "make it do or do without" philosophy... He was the original MacGyver. Grandpa was adventurous and curious. He found out how to build things and then built them.
He will be sorely missed and welcomed into heaven by his first wife, Eunice, and missed by his family and wife/caretaker Edith Jex Clayton. If it is true that "heaven is not so far away" then I hope he looks out after the rest of us...We love and will miss you, Grandpa.
(Great-Grandpa Clayton with Susannah, April 2007)
2 comments:
Sorry to hear about your grandpa. He was a wonderful man. It was fun reading about some of your memories of him. Take care.
Cassy
Julie and Joe,
I don't know if you will remember me very well, but this is Alex Springman (Christine's daughter). I recieved the CD that Uncle Keith made of Grandpa's memorial services, and afterwards, was moved by curiosity to type his name into google. I found your blog, and I just cannot believe how much everyone has grown and changed. It was so moving to hear what you had to say about Grandpa. It's funny what you end up remembering. I will always remember his hugs, how he always had a bandaid on at least one of his fingers, the way he smelled, and his kind smile and words. Anyhow, our memories of him and of Grandma will keep them both alive and with us.
Alexandra Springman
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