Great-Granddaddy Kenneth

Dear Edison,

A lot has happened in the past week. I guess I will start with the sad news. Your Great-Grandaddy Kenneth Crouch passed away on Wednesday, April 16th at 11:57 p.m. One of the first things I thought of was that he would never get to meet you and you would never get to meet him. He was a wonderful Christian man and an inspiration to everyone who knew him.

Kenneth was not my grandfather by blood; however, you would have never known that because he treated all of us equally - grandchildren and step-grandchildren. My Grandma Betty married Kenneth about 6 years before I was born. I never knew my biological grandfather on my mom's side of the family and Kenneth filled the role - complete with big bear hugs, kisses, smiles, laughs and chewing gum. He was a super great-grandfather to Emily and Kensley - coming to watch them perform in church programs and joining our family for cake and ice cream on our birthdays. He would have loved you, Edison, and treated you the same as everyone else!

I cried the other night for Kenneth and told your daddy, "You know, I have had three grandfathers - now they are all gone and I don't feel like I really knew any of them!" I would have loved to have had the opporunity to have met my biological grandfather on my mom's side. He died when I was 3 years old and I never knew him. My Grandpa Woods died when I was 16 years old and luckily I do have a few good memories with him. Now, Kenneth too, is gone and while I feel truly blessed to have had him as a grandfather and have many wonderful memories of him - I have thought a lot about how I could have been closer to him.

While writing this, I thought of something else. Someday, you are going to long for those you didn't have a chance to know. For you, there will be many - your entire biological family - mother, father, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I hope you will feel truly blessed to have had me as your mom, Paul as your dad and the rest of us as your family!