In Loving Memory

Life through PB’s perspective is how I remember a large portion of my childhood.  Rarely in front of the camera, but always behind it, PB always said that photos were the ways to trigger memories.  We see a picture of a time or place and those memories come back to us. 

From my earliest memories, PB was synonymous with his camera. Whether it was taking photos of his travels all over the world, nature, or his family, he recorded his memories and ours with each click of his camera. 

 

He often said that “God gave him a special ability” to understand how light, color, and their relationship to each other work.  His photos of nature were stunning.  They were National Geographic worthy, but he never had the desire to put them on display in that way.  He had a deep appreciation for God’s creation and found a sense of joy in capturing it with his camera.  God HAD given PB a special understanding of how things worked, and if you happened to mention words like “pixel,”  “spectrum,” or “simulator” in his presence, you had better get comfortable in your seat because PB’s eyelids would close, and he would take whatever length of time necessary to impart some of his knowledge to you – like it or not!

 

God also gave PB a special ability when it came to his dedication to family.  So many of my memories as a child were when we were down at his house on the Patuxent River in Southern Maryland.  PB’s property that adjoined his mothers (my great grandmother’s) property was the setting for so many vivid memories of our family.  I remember swimming in the river, playing on the beach and the pier, learning to fish, learning to crab, learning to water ski, and my favorite – learning to drive PB’s boat.  I remember countless hours of boat rides on the Miss Ann – rides all around the river, in the bay, the coolers with fish, the baskets with crabs, and always stories of things that maybe didn’t go just right.  PB had a boat house and a boat ramp on the property, and he and my dad spent hours in the boat house – getting the boats ready/repaired and tuned up after hours on the water.  PB could fix almost anything and usually did – electric shock or hypothermia be dammed!  I remember all the summers that Shenley and I would play outside – swinging on the hammock, eating watermelon by the water, making “salad” out of weeds, “soup” out of sea nettles, tying chicken necks to line along the pier, and helping our mom tend to the enormous garden.

 

I remember riding in the back of PB’s light blue pick up truck, and Shenley and I in the open truck bed – no seat belts and no cares in the world.  I remember hearing the ice cream man down the road past their property, and Shenley and I chasing him barefoot – always barefoot – down the baking hot road.  If it wasn’t chasing the ice cream man, it was riding in the back of PB’s pick up to the Highs convenience store where PB always got us at least the double scoop ice cream cone.

He was dedicated to my grandmother, lovingly dedicated to his own mother, and he cared for Grandma Bette with patience and love until the day he died. He helped out my parents when they were starting out, became a father-figure to my dad, and made it possible for Shen and I to get a great private school education when we were young.  In all the years of being around him, I struggle to remember a time when he was angry. 

 

He was generous in every sense of the word. He was the type of grandfather who came to our music recitals, gave us real live chicks in our Easter baskets, always greeted us with bags of candy, and reimbursed us for our good report card grades with his very generous $ to grade scale.

His house was like a museum filled with his collections from his travels around the world.  Every inch of his home, literally, housed some sort of rare collectible, and he could tell you exactly what it was, what country he got it from, and some other interesting feature about it.  He made thermal hash, loved sweets, battled squirrels and raccoons wit for wit (to keep them off his bird feeders), was a champion skeet shooter in his younger years, and a true lover of nature.

 

He truly lived an incredible life.  He survived disease as a child, cancer as an elderly person, was a World War II veteran, and spent his career working for the Army on complex simulators and developing night and thermal vision technologies.  He found enjoyment in retirement – travelling with Grandma Bette between their homes in Maryland, Maggie Valley, NC, and Dunedin, FL.  When Grandma Bette’s health forced them to stay put in Maryland, he cared for her every day and still found ways to occupy his mind with his photography, converting to digital and cataloging thousands of slides and photos from the past, teaching himself to play the piano, and never complaining.  I got to watch my mom show him that same dedication as she cared for him and was a constant presence in the recent years as he battled cancer and times of loneliness as Bette’s mental health declined.

 

He loved Jesus and modeled God’s love to his family.  For all his piano playing, I think he only ever played hymns.  I asked him one time what his favorite hymn was, and he said it was Face to Face.  You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTkWah6kbWw  The lyrics say:

Face to face with Christ my Savior,

Face to face, what will it be,

When with rapture I behold Him,

Jesus Christ, who died for me?

 

(Refrain)

Face to face shall I behold Him,

Far beyond the starry sky;

Face to face in all His glory

I shall see Him by and by!

 

Only faintly now I see Him,

With the darkening veil between,

But a blessed day is coming,

When His glory shall be seen.

 

(Refrain)

Face to face shall I behold Him,

Far beyond the starry sky;

Face to face in all His glory

I shall see Him by and by!

 

What rejoicing in His presence,

When are banished grief and pain;

When the crooked ways are straightened,

And the dark things shall be plain!

 

(Refrain)

Face to face shall I behold Him,

Far beyond the starry sky;

Face to face in all His glory

I shall see Him by and by!

 

Face to face! Oh, blissful moment!

Face to face to see and know;

Face to face with my Redeemer,

Jesus Christ, who loves me so.

 

(Refrain)

Face to face shall I behold Him,

Far beyond the starry sky;

Face to face in all His glory

I shall see Him by and by!

 

What a peace to know the lyrics of this hymn are true for PB.  Finally he is face to face with his Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who loves him so.