Moments with Michele: Larry Donaldson Gillespie

Friday, September 30, 2011

Larry Donaldson Gillespie

Last weekend my mom and I went over to Seattle area for my uncles memorial and finalizing of some of his affairs. Larry was my mom's brother and it's been a hard situation and a reminder of how we don't always understand reasons for circumstances yet was something we needed to go through. In the past 4 months my mom has lost 2 brothers. Frank died in April and Larry died in August. It's been very surreal at times and full of varied emotions.

We did not know Larry's whereabouts for the last 22 years and then through circumstances surrounding my grandparents death were able to find him. We don't know the reasons he walked away from all his family nor will we ever know or understand. In the past few months after my Uncle Frank passed away, my mom and Larry reconnected and my mom flew over to Seattle on August 13 and met Larry for several hours. They had a plan at that time that he would come over to Spokane in October. That was not to be. Larry had a stroke on August 16 and passed away on August 30. Many questions unanswered however it is what it is! Very sad also to find out all these years he had indeed been only 40 minutes from our family.

Larry had a wonderful circle of very dear friends and they have been very helpful to my mom during this time. So last weekend we drove over to the west side of the state and met his friends who were family to him and had a memorial service for Larry. My cousin Dylan, whom I absolutely love and adore also went with us to help go through this unusual situation. I made a memorial board and program and his friends made some handouts and also had some of Larry's model airplane collection on display. The Honor Guard came and presented his flag and performed Taps...it all came together quite nicely.

A huge lesson I again have been reminded of from my precious mom is FORGIVENESS! We all make mistakes and we all have received enormous amounts of forgiveness in our lifetime. I know I have! We will never know why or really understand why Larry made the decisions he did. It wasn't how they were raised...my poppy died never knowing what happened to his son. That was heartbreaking. It's also a reminder of how important family is and how crucial it is to stay in touch NO MATTER WHAT!

I took lots of pictures and wanted to share them and also really thank his wonderful friends for all they did!

Just love love love Dylan!

Very best friends to Larry...

Rob & Ellen

We went to lunch on Friday at Randy's and visited & visited & visited...

My mom - JonElla & sweet Ellen

Larry's very dear friend Julie, Dylan, Rob, my Mom & Ellen

The memorial service was Uncle Mo's Snappy Inn on Saturday and there were approximately 60 friends who came to honor Larry and share memories. That was also nice as mom and I learned about Larry and what he had been doing the past 20 years.