Grandpa Walker 85th Birthday

December 23rd is my Grandpa Walker's birthday. He turned 85 this year and man, I love him so much. He's funny and kind and hardworking. He has lived a lot of life experiences and he's better because of them. This picture was taken just this year. My Uncle Marti (my dad's brother) got family pictures taken with their kids and grandkids and invited my grandpa to come with them. I'm so grateful because this picture is such a treasure. 

A story about this jacket. My sister asked where he had gotten such a stylish cardigan/blazer and my dad told us this story:

"So that white coat that Grandpa is wearing "Ellis Ramon Walker" in the picture with Marti and Kim's family. He wore it down to his birthday party and he was telling us: I said, "Dad, you've had that coat for ever." He said "Well, I've had this coat longer than I've known your mother. Well... that's probably not true. My mom and dad gave me this coat in the Christmas of 1956, the year after I got home from the Army. I met your mother that year, so I've had it as long as I've known her and longer than we've been married." My dad continued, "I remember him wearing that coat just my whole life. It's still in amazing shape, especially for being a white coat, if you look at it- it still looks great. He still wears it, it still fits him. He still loves it. It was a really cool story to hear him talk about it." 

When my grandpa turned 80 years old, my dad and his siblings threw him a big community birthday celebration. It was well done and well attended. Obviously, this year there can't be any big gatherings - even a gathering of just all of the family members would be too big. Instead, my Aunt Susan decided to put together a big zoom birthday party for him. All of his kids (my parents, aunts, and uncles) were there in person and all of the grandkids videoed in. It was really neat to be there with all of my extended family. We ranged all over, from Washington, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Florida and the country of Jordan (my cousin Wayne is serving in the military in the Middle East - I almost burst into sobs each time one of his kids would try to get his attention on the zoom call.) 

They had each one of us unmute ourselves in turn and say something, mostly wishing Grandpa a happy birthday. Jacob said something sentimental about how grateful he is for the good examples of family we have had in our grandparents and extended family and that he was glad to be part of the Walker Clan (or something to that effect). My grandpa interjected that "we aren't Irish, we aren't a clan." So somebody asked him what we are then, and he matter-of-factly stated "A herd." Spoken like a true rancher. 

Technically our Walker heritage comes from Scotland, where we could have been part of a Walker clan. But herd makes much more sense in these circumstances. Ha. 

He blew out the candles for his cake and said a few words - mostly just gruffly told us that he loved us. 

I had a thing written up from a couple of years ago about Christmas from an interview I did with him and I asked my Aunt if I could share it. I did, and even though it wasn't planned, hopefully it was well received. 

It was just a neat thing to be part of and I'm ever increasingly grateful for technology to allow us to connect with the people that we love, even at great distances.