Grandpa's Home

I received a phone call from my dad this morning telling me that Grandpa had died. It didn't really come as a surprise as I had been told that he was doing poorly. It was interesting talking to my dad because we both didn't know how to feel really. This wasn't the first time that this had happened. In fact this was supposed to happen last Christmas. He was only given days to live, but then came out of it and lived for another 8 months. I feel sad that he is gone and emotion is there but it is a mixture of emotions. Sadness that he is gone, regret that I didn't see him as much as I should have or could have, but also happiness that this trial called life was over and that he had passed. Also he was my last grandparent. Gideon never got to meet any of them during their time here. It's strange moving into this phase of life where you have no grandparents and your parents are being called grammy and grampy. I am saddened that he never got the chance to know such wonderful loving people in his youth.

Grandpa's name was Bacle Don Taylor. Bacle (pronounced Basil) being a family name one passed on for several generations. As you can imagine he went by Don, as did the majority of the Bacle Don's of recent years. It was a name that was supposed to be passed on to all the 1st born male Taylor's. I know what you are thinking and yes you are right I am the first born male in my family. And to answer your second question, yes the tradition stopped with me. This was decided on by my parents after my dad saw the struggles his eldest brother had with the name. I must admit that I am not terribly disappointed about it either. Grandpa I love you but Bacle? really?
He was a kind and gentle soul. He lived in many different places but lived most his life in St George in the only house in the US that I have seen painted Pepto BIsmol pink. The Dominicans would have been proud. I don't know why they never changed the house color, but it sure made it easy to know which house was Grandpa's. He was an educated man and even taught at Dixie College. He served his country during WWII, but never had the chance to serve a mission in his youth.

It was always fun to go see grandpa as a kid because all the things to do.....well not so much at his house as the only game they owned was chinese checkers.... but because of his farm. Grandpa kept a small ranch next to the river that was always full of animals. Mostly cows and horses but occasionally goats, chickens, mules and even ostriches at one point. Grandpa did occasionally bring the animals to market but mostly he had them for pets.

Grandpa loved the church and made sure we all knew how important it was. Later in life he was able to serve two missions, one to Australia and the second to Albania where he played a major role in opening it up to the Gospel. Grandpa loved family history and was doing Genealogy constantly. He is really the reason why the Taylor lines go back as far as they do. He always said he had two goals in life one was to out live his father, who lived till 90, and second to finish his genealogy work. Grandpa did finish one of those goals, he lived to be 92 , 93 in February. This goal did prove to be a problem because he lost his wife over twenty years ago. He did get remarried but she died several years ago as well. He struggled with this often saying he was ready to go see Grandma. Which is another reason why I am happy because now he is back in the loving embrace of Grandma and others waiting on the other side that he loved to know so well. I love and miss you Grandpa.

Tristan 8/14/09