He's home now

This past week we had to do one of those things you never want to prepare yourself or your kids for; we had to change our prayer requests from those of healing and recovery to those of peace and comfort when we had to say goodbye to my wife's grandpa John. Regardless of how young or old someone is it's never easy to let them go and say goodbye as you want another year, another holiday, the next fishing trip, one more month, a day or just another hour to spend by their side.  I knew this was going to be really hard because of the special bond my oldest son Cole has with great grandpa; just like his uncle Travis did when he was growing up.

A little over 20 years ago I just so happened to become an extended part of the Brink family when I started dating Michelle who is now my wife. I never had the chance to know my grandpas as they both died when my parents were teenagers but John treated me like one of his own and showed me what a grandpa could be as I watched my wife & her cousins grow up. John's influence on Michelle, Travis, Kristen, Nick, Kellie, Jeremiah & Maria is all evident. Even in the great grand-kids you can see a bit of him in them and it's not just their love of ice cream, chocolate and lemonade that he snuck each and everyone of them way before they were ready for it either.

You see John was a larger than life John Wayne type character that loved to fish and always had a story. The last thing he told me was to not catch em all and to let the kids catch some too. I thanked him for being such a good grandpa and I want to thank Michelle, Travis, Kristen, Nick, Kellie, Jeremiah & Maria for sharing him with me and I can only think & hope my grandpas would have been a lot like him.

There was a reason that Jesus began his ministries along the banks of the Galilee and started with the salt of the Earth....fisherman. As the Bible states in Mathew 4:18-20  ¹⁸ As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ “Come, follow me,”Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” ²⁰ At once they left their nets and followed him. John has just put his pole down and followed Jesus.

The legend of John Brink will continue to grow with each family gathering as we reminisce and tell our favorite stories; just as his fish tales would grow from the time he'd leave the Boyer until the time he got home. Whether these tales are shared at our annual family camp out sitting around the fire, playing a game of 31 (I still think he cheated; I could just never catch him) or fishing we'll all have our moments when we tear up but I'm sure there will be plenty of smiles and laughs to go with those too. There will plenty of proud moments too as new great grand kids are brought into the family and we tell them all about John but I'm sure none will be as great as Steve's will be when he gets to create that special bond his dad had with all the grand kids as a whole new set of Brink adventures begin and I can't wait to be a part of them.