On Friday, October 8th, my papaw passed away at home. Our family was there as he took his last breath. He had been battling Alzhiemer’s for about three years. His physical health declined quickly after a hospital stay in July.
My Papaw…there are not enough words to describe how wonderful he was. His funeral was probably THE best (and longest) funeral that I have ever been to. A family friend and pastor was there to speak about Papaw. He had sooo many funny stories to tell…he told us that it wasn’t hard to come up with something to say because Papaw had already provided such funny memories to share. If you didn’t know M.L. “Tinker or Tinkie” Hood, you missed out on one FUNNY person. He was constantly joking…CONSTANTLY! However, he had the sweetest spirit! He was constantly serving others especially in his church, St. Rest. I can remember going to stay with them which was often…we spent ALOT of time with my grandparents growing up…and on Sunday mornings, Papaw would get up early and go to the church, get on an old bus and go pick up people for church. He was the chairman of the deacons forever and my mamaw is still the treasurer (and has been as long as I can remember) for the church. Papaw would get outside with us and play hours and hours of baseball (which was a LOVE of his). I will share two of my favorite things…oh wait…maybe three:
1. Mamaw and Papaw have lived in the country…near Goose Creek for as long as I have been alive. We LOVED going to their house in the country. Papaw had cows, two ponds to fish in, AND THE OLD STORE. The Old Store was a general store that my great grandparents had and it’s still standing today with some stuff still in it. When we would go out to their house, all of us grandkids would either pile in the back of Papaw’s FORD truck…while one of us sat in papaw’s lap and drove and one of us did the shifting…pretty sure all of those things are unsafe…thankfully, no one was ever hurt on the .25 mile drive from their house to the Old Store. Then, we would go in the Old Store and shop, shop, shop…the back section was a shoe store so we would go shoe shopping too…you can imagine how lovely those were after sitting in a hot building for years and years! Anyway, we thought it was GREAT!
2. After a day of logging, Papaw would always sit in the chair as you came in the back door. He would sit and watch baseball and let me “style” his hair. I would go get all of Mamaw’s combs and brushes, wet them and go to town styling. I absolutely LOVED it! Papaw always had pretty hair.
3. This is probably one of the grandkids favorite memories: Beside my papaw’s house, in the woods, he made some steps in the dirt for us to use to get to the creek. At the creek, we would spend HOURS swinging on the vines. It was sooo much fun swinging back and forth. In fact, at the funeral, there was a floral arrangement from the grandkids with one of the vines from mamaw and papaw’s intertwined in the flowers.
These are just three of the MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of memories I have with my precious PAPAW!
One more thing that I will always remember about Papaw is him singing in church. I would sit in between Mamaw and Papaw. They always sang the good ole hymns and Papaw sang his heart out!!! I absolutely LOVE hymns and I think that’s where I developed my love of them!
Here is a picture of Trigger and Papaw from April. Even then, with his memory fading fast and confusing setting in, he remembered how to play ball with the GREAT grandkids.
Papaw lived a good life…he fought a good fight…and now he is in Heaven with Jesus! I will see him again one day!
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