Love You. Miss You.

On Sunday morning in the wee hours, my dear grandfather Owen Mauss Christensen left this life to join his beautiful wife. He was an extraordinary man... truly!

He would have been 97 years old next month. And just last week he was driving, playing games and loving all those around him. 5 months ago, he went golfing with his granddaughters (see photo above). At 96 years old, he had been completely independent up until a month ago when he got pneumonia. He never let life get in the way of doing what he wanted. He always talked about President Hinckley being able to do so much at his age, so why shouldn't he.

Grandpa was loved by so many. He was a stake patriarch for our church for almost 20 years. Everyone that met him thought he was so "cool" (that word was used a lot by the younger generation to describe my grandpa), caring and full of love. He loved his 5 children immensely along with his 19 grandchildren and 31+ great grandchildren (I have lost count) and I think 1 great, great grandchild! What a posterity and he got to live long enough to meet each and every one of them. Every time I talked/saw my grandfather he gave me the biggest bear hug and always made me feel so loved.

And to top it off, he loved his wife dearly. He took such good care of her their whole lives. And in the end when she was ill and sick, her loved her even more (if that was possible). It is hard to put into words how great a man he was, but believe me he was absolutely wonderful! I love him so much and am going to miss his bear hugs.

BTW - That picture is of him at his 95th birthday party. Now you can see why he lived so long. Doesn't he look great!

One more thing. My cousin Laurel wrote the most wonderful blog entry about my grandpa on her blog a few month back. (she is a captivating writer, so it will be worth it) You have to read it and you will see just how great of a man he was.
Read here! and another great entry by her that is just as great.