In Memory of Col. Homer Schmidt

Today we will be having the memorial service for my Papa. As I think back about his life and my time with him these are a few of my favorite memories:
* My parents and I living with him and my grandmother for the first 5 years of my life. Good thing they had a big house!
* Listening to him sing in the church choir.
* Watching him cooking in the kitchen with my mom on holidays. He liked to add lots of cheese and jalapenos to everything.
* Driving in the Cadillac with him as he listened to classical music on the radio.
* Taking family vacations to Kansas City, San Antonio, Estes Park, and Williamsburg, Virginia.
* Seeing him sitting at the head of their dinning room table reading his newspaper when I would stop by to visit (the same table that we now use in our apartment).
* Having breakfast with him at his house when I would come home from college. He would always tell me how proud he was.
* Watching the video of him walk my grandmother down the aisle at my wedding. He wore his military suit and looked so esteemed.
* Letting him hold Eva the day after she was born. A proud great-grandfather.

These are just a few of the good times that I am thankful to have had with him. Although I am sad and will miss his presence in our family, I also feel like his life had such completion. He got to see my mom graduate from college, our whole extended family was in town to celebrate his 81st birthday in January, and spent his 57th anniversary with my grandmother in the hospital the day before he passed.

He had a heart attack 3 days before he passed and I am so thankful that I went to visit him in the hospital. We knew he was aging but not that his time was ending. I had gone just to cheer him up, not necessarily to say goodbye. I am thankful that I got to joke with him in the hospital and see his smile at the end. I am SO THANKFUL that I told him that I loved him before I left that day.

As we celebrate his life this weekend I want to rejoice in the fact that he is now spending eternity with our Lord Jesus. Papa loved the Lord and is now fully healed. In the story of Jesus' Crucifixion, Jesus speaks with to a man who is on the cross next to him. The man puts his faith in Jesus and Jesus tells him, "Today you will be with me in paradise." I believe Papa is in Heaven using his beautiful, deep singing voice to praise God. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for my family. We appreciate being so loved.