A Real Life Living Angel was Lost Today

My dearest friend, wonderful neighbor, and loving adopted grandpa to my children died today. If I were to write all the words that I possess in my heart to describe how truly special and kind he was, I would write until the end of time. My dearest friend Paul was the most optimistic, friendly, hardworking , grateful, honest, happy person.  No matter where he went, or what he did, he did it with a smile. Paul leaves behind his loving wife, Wilma, and they were married for over 65 years.  They did everything together and always were so sweet to one another. You just never saw a kinder couple. We were garden buddies:  Paul, Wilma, Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I.  We shared our fresh vegetables with one another and spent many hours talking about our harvest and the number of quart jars of veggies we put up for the winter.  Sometimes we would race to see who would get the peaches done first or who got the very first red ripe tomato of the season. Paul loved my family and we loved Paul.  He and my son would do tractor things together and Paul said out of everyone he knows - and that included adults - he would trust my son with any of his tractors, wagons or equipment.  At our parties, Paul would always give the best tractor/wagon rides.  Everyone loved them.  He would take them all over our property and his property and there wasn't a finer hay ride to be found in all the world. We shared dinners together and if you ask my younger daughter, spending the night at Paul and Wilmas was the very best place to be in all the world.  Paul was a true believer in ice cream after dinner.  He would say, "there is always room for ice cream.....it just fills in all the cracks and spaces."  Paul served in the Army and was a confidante to my older daughter.  They shared a bond that will never be broken.  He once told her, "Never let them know where you keep your goat" and he always made sure to ask her if she was holding up.  My daughter always told Paul that she hadn't let anyone know where she kept her goat.  That always made him proud.  Every single morning Paul made his wife a cup of hot chocolate.  Every single morning.  When we were out of electricity for a week one Christmas, he had tried to heat up her milk with a torch just to be sure she got her hot chocolate.  We helped them out that winter and made sure the hot chocolate would be made.  To say they were important to us, is a huge understatement.  They enriched our lives in so many ways.  Paul was truly one of the best men I have ever known. If it were possible to capture the essence of kindness, the essence of all that was good and loving in this world and put that inside of one heart, he had that heart. He loved God, his wife, his farm, his garden, his family, his neighbors and his life. He blessed this earth with 83 years of true goodness.  To say goodbye to someone that special is like saying goodbye to a piece of your heart. He was an Angel on this earth. My children will forever miss him.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres will forever miss him and I will miss him with all my heart. Kahlil Gibran so eloquently writes what I so deeply feel, " When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight."  Thank you Paul for bringing so much delight into our lives. Our memories of you will fill our hearts and we will never forget your smile, your laughter or your love.