I’m writing this blog today from North Carolina USA. No, our route didn’t change again and no, we didn’t get lost on our way to Thailand. Bethany and I have been stateside for the last week spending time with family and friends to honor the memory and life of my grandfather who passed away November 22nd, the day before Thanksgiving. Where we were in Malaysia it was actually already Thanksgiving. I was in the village of Karak helping pick up our Thanksgiving dinner when Mom called me.
(Saying goodbye to Grandmomma and Granddaddy before we left for the race. They are some of our biggest supporters)
I was walking down the sidewalk when she told me that Granddaddy didn’t make it through his procedure to remove a blood clot that had caused a heart attack a few days before. My squad mate David who knew the situation knew exactly what was going on as soon as the tears began to flow. Collapsed on the sidewalk with David’s hand on my shoulder, I called Bethany to tell her the news… I barely got the words out before my next round of ugly crying started. It was a helpless feeling being 9,500 miles away in the middle of a Malaysian village unable to quickly get to my family.
I spent the rest of my day traveling to Penang to meet up with Bethany to figure out our next steps. A 4 hour bus ride somehow turned into an 8 hour bus ride and with a phone on 6% I had to be careful with how long I left it on to let Bethany know where I was. I spent a day in Penang with the girls as we waited for more info to come in from the states. It was beautiful to watch God answer so many question marks in so little time. Our squad mate Sarah hugely blessed us with our plane tickets, my brother and sister-in-law brought us warm clothes to wear, and the timing of everything worked out perfectly.
We traveled for 40 hours from the Penang airport to the Charlotte airport. We only got 5 to 6 hours of rest a piece and only caffeine and airplane food in our systems when we landed. We were picked up from the airport and taken home to clean up and get dressed for Grandaddy’s visitation. Not even 3 hours off the plane and we find ourselves standing in front of Grandaddy’s casket viewing his body. Everything is so surreal. We’re in America and why we’re in America just doesn’t seem real to us. Traveling for so long though gives you time to reflect and process. I’m a natural internal processor and often times I process through writing sermons/speeches in my head. The following is the eulogy of sorts I wrote for Granddaddy somewhere over Europe. I wanted to write it out so that you all could see a glimpse of the man I call Granddaddy.
Ralph Dameron was a man of many hats. He was a veteran, an electrician, a craftsman, a salesman, a world class skeet shooter, but above all he was a loving father to his three sons and a loving husband to his wife of over 65 years. Granddaddy was the kind of guy that always needed to have a project. When he and Grandmomma would be getting ready to come for a visit he would always call and tell Mom to be thinking of anything that needed to be done around the house. If I had to bet I would say his first question for Jesus when he got to heaven was: “What do you need done around here?”
(Granddaddy letting me help drive his mower after an afternoon of shooting skeet)
Granddaddy taught me most everything I know about shooting a gun. I can remember going out as a kid and shooting skeet in the fields behind my grandparents house. Granddaddy would be joking around and keeping score against us to add a little competition to the mix, but he never let the score stop him from taking the time to teach us how to breathe through a shot or relax our trigger finger while we squeezed. To him it was more than a game, it was sharing one of his passions with us and equipping us with a way to protect our future families. One of his favorite punchlines was a story about a telemarketer who called the house one day to try and sell an alarm system. When Granddaddy answered the phone the man asked if his home was protected against burglars and Granddaddy replied: “Yes sir, my home is secured by Smith & Wesson.” and then hung up on him.
If there was something that Granddaddy wanted but couldn’t afford or if it was a cheaper option, he would just build it himself. He was a self taught man that had a particular way about him. He had a way for everything to be done especially when it came to taking care of his possessions. It wasn’t because of distrust or ego that he was like this, but because he knew the hard work that it took to get those things and was going to do everything he could to steward what God had blessed him with.
Granddaddy taught us a lot through the way he lived his life and through the teachings he would give on various topics. He always had a story for any occasion and somehow it seemed like there was always a moral to them. Granddaddy set the tone and example for every Dameron man in our family. One of his gifts and love languages was acts of service and used that gift often at his church. Granddaddy showed his love for church through the many projects he completed, his loyalty to the choir, and his love for the people there. His faithful service to the church, his love for his family, and the overall joy and laughter he loved to bring to a room is what we will always remember and cling to.
(My grandparents church has a memorial for veteran members who have passed away. The flag was lowered to half mast in honor of Granddaddy.)
P.S. We are leaving today to go back out on the field. Our next stop is in Thailand and we hope you will keep up with us through this holiday season! I’m sure there will be plenty of Christmas shenanigans going on overseas : ).
