Bella and Milly

This picture was taken Christmas of 2005 - just before Isabella turned 1. It is of Isabella, Kenny, Kenny's mom, and Kenny's Grandpa --- 4 generations. By the time Isabella came along all of my grandparents had passed away, so I knew I wanted to get a picture of her with her only great grandparent that was still living. So we took a 4 generation picture. Tonight, Kenny got a call from his mom that his Grandpa passed away. He had been sick for a little while and in some ways it was "expected" - but how can you ever truly expect death. Since we live so far away, I didn't know Grandpa Prokop extremely well, we saw him once or twice a year at the most, but he had to have been one of the jolliest people I've ever met. Constantly smiling and laughing and finding enjoyment in the simple things of life. Three of these "simple things" that he would enjoy would be his family, his pets, and watching his sports - I'm sure the rest of the family knows more, but in the time I spent with him, those are things I will remember best. Up until the last couple years when it was harder on him, he would spend most of the year buying Christmas presents for all of his grandkids and great grandkids -- I personally could not tell you how many that is, but in Kenny's family alone - that's 5 kids with spouses and 15 grandkids -- and you could tell he got such a joy out of doing this. My favorite gift was our first year of marriage and we got what I think is called a wedding or anniversary clock - I can't remember, but I remember him explaining it to us. He also always got the couples a blanket - I'm not sure his reasoning, but it was always a very practical gift, and I doubt we will ever run out of blankets in our house. I regret the fact that along with my grandparents my girls will never get to know Grandpa Prokop, that they were not able to experience going to Grandpa's around Christmas and getting a doll, like he would get the young granddaughters. But I am glad that I was able to get to know him just a little and that we do have this happy memory of the four generations to always cherish!