I found out today that my Papaw, (my Dad's dad) passed away. My mom's dad passed away when she was 7 so I never knew him. He just turned 85 years old and was a real character. We lived far away from he and Grandma Mayhle when I was growing up so I only got to see them about once a year. He lived a long life though, a lot longer than he should have! He survived fighting in WWII as a paratrooper and received a purple heart (I recently found out it was from eating poisonous berries and suffering stomach problems,ha!) He was a coal miner in Pennsylvannia and while many of his peers suffered an early death from "black lung" he never had a trace of it. Also, in 2003, we were told he only had about 6 months to live so he sure proved them wrong! He was a fiesty devil and wasn't afraid to tell you what he thought. Some of my favorite memories of Papaw are of having a blast at my grandparents' house in the Pennsylvannia mountains. He always tried to bite my ears off and I liked peeling skin off his sunburned bald head (gross I know!). My last conversation with him was a few weeks ago when I saw a documentary on coal mining and called him to ask some questions. He and my Grandma have been married 61 years, have 6 children, 17 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. I'm glad he's not suffering anymore but its hard to believe he's really gone. I wish Jensen could have know him better.
Here are some picture we took last summer at our family reunion
Ira Finley Mayhle
My dad, his wife Sharon, my sister Carrie and us
Great Grandpa with Jensen
Me and Papaw hamin it up
1 comment:
So sorry for your loss. Great pictures of you all with him, what a treasure!
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