Grandpa

From August 2006

On Monday, September 29, 2014, my grandpa, Francis Everett Broadbent, died. It was the same day my little granddaughter (his great-great granddaughter) turned 1. He was 92 years old and never expected to live that long. He suffered from severe, life-threatening asthma for most of his life and had to move from New York to California because of it.

He was also diagnosed with leukemia about 17 years ago and given one week to live without chemo. The doctors didn't expect him to survive. But obviously he did--he had more work to do. He also had other health problems that made life challenging including almost complete deafness which made it very difficult to talk to people and go to church. But he kept trying anyway. He lost his wife in March of 2012 after caring for her for many years and because of those things, I think he was really happy to finally be released from this life.

2006: It doesn't seem that long ago except my children were 8 years younger!

On that visit, we went to the open house for the Sacramento Temple and took my grandparents with us.

My second son received his patriarchal blessing from Grandpa

The funeral was a week later in Davis, California, where he and his wife settled in about 1955 and lived most of their lives. It's a real tribute to him that all of his children and their spouses came, including his son and wife who are currently serving a mission in Russia. Also, my parents came from their mission in Boston. Even more impressive is the fact that 43 of his 45 grandchildren came.

I'm glad I was able to go. My husband happened to be on a business trip to Brazil during that time so it was a little complicated for me to figure out who was going to take care of the children, and especially Camille, while I was gone. Fortunately our college-aged son was not too busy with school (and I was only gone about 36 hours) so I hired him to fill in for me.

One year ago, we visited my Grandpa in Modesto where he had moved so his daughter could take care of him. Susanna got her patriarchal blessing at that time.

The night before the funeral, my family got together and had a meeting where we talked about our memories of Grandpa and sang an obscure hymn that he had loved.

At the funeral, I realized that your ancestors influence your life in ways that you aren't even totally aware of. Here are some ways my grandpa has influenced me:

1. Education: Grandpa got a Ph.d. in agronomy in a time when advanced degrees were relatively uncommon. He taught at Cornell and then University of California at Davis. All of his children and a large percentage of his grandchildren graduated from college and many have gone on to advanced degrees.

2. Music: Grandpa loved classical music although he could not play an instrument. My grandparents had all of their children take piano lessons and two of them became quite accomplished, including my mother. Grandpa loved to hear me play the violin even when I really wasn't very good and I appreciated that encouragement.

3. Family: Grandpa was really devoted to his family. My grandparents had reunions every two years for as long as I could remember until about 2005 when it became too difficult. These reunions were not easy to put together but I'm grateful for their effort. They were very proud of the missions that their grandchildren went on. They put together pictures and flags for all the missionaries, including my children who went.

He wrote volumes of family history records. I know a lot about the Broadbents because of those histories. He always took care of his wife and family when it needed to be done. He was an extremely conscientious and responsible man.

4. Gospel of Jesus Christ: Grandpa was devoted to the gospel. He served as a patriarch for 37 years giving over 1000 blessings. He served as a bishop for the local congregation in Davis, giving long hours without any pay. This was especially challenging because they had no building at the time he was called and they had to construct much of the building themselves in addition to raising funds. He also served in the stake presidency and the high council. In later years, when he was not able to do as much, he spent a lot of time extracting names for family history records.

I'm sure there are other ways he has influenced my life that I am not even aware of. I am not sad at his passing though. He was ready. I am confident that the Lord greeted him at the end of his life with, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."