M.B. Ford, 1929-2006

I don't know if any of you have ever seen the movie "Babe" about the talking pig. Well if you have then you might remember James Cromwell's character, Farmer Hoggett. This is as close of a reference as I could think of to give someone a visual of my grandaddy. He passed away April 10th in the Hospice House in Greenwood, SC after an almost year long battle with lung and liver cancer. Following was a week full of sympathy, tears, love and food from people who absolutely adored my grandaddy and our family. It was truly amazing to see.

Here is the obituary so you can read a little more about him but I want to tell you a few of my memories of him.

The biggest thing I can remember about him is his love of God and the outdoors. The two went hand in hand with him. He could write a book about being one with nature because he truly was that. He had a green thumb like no other. Any plant-life he touched blossomed and grew into something spectacular. Talk about a kid's dream. He had a landscaping company while I was growing up and I remember riding on his tractors and heavy farm equipment every weekend. During the summer I stayed covered in dirt from head to toe. When he wasn't showing the intricacies of landscaping, grading, grounds maintenance and proper irrigation he was telling me stories of when he used to work for the fire department or as a salesman and got to travel to different countries in South America. He had a love of plants, a love of camping, a love of fishing but most of all a love of his family that can be unsurpassed.

He and my grandmother have been married for 56 years. I overheard my grandmother saying to someone at the visitation about how he was her first love and her best friend and she's never known anyone as wonderful as him. After 56 years she's saying this. And it wasn't just something she said because he was gone, when I was around them I heard them say this to each other on a daily basis. They were in love, there was no doubt about that.

My mom has told me stories before about how he was a tough father when they were growing up. He was tough but she learned so much through him about responsibility and being a living example for Christ. When his grandchildren came into this world (me, my brother Samuel and my cousin Jessica) we apparently turned him from a tough man into a tough man with a tender heart. We were the apples of his eye. I remember crawling up in his lap when I was younger to watch Hee Haw on a Saturday night. I remember my little brother being no older than 4 sitting in his lap as he drove the tractor around their land. Yeah, it was dangerous but if you've ever read the book Wild at Heart, he epitomized what it meant to be wild at heart and to act out on it in your physical and in your spiritual life. He had his faults and flaws that anyone who knew him well, knew what they were. But it was these flaws that made me see him as a human instead of superhuman. And they also made me see him as a servant of God since I saw him on more than one occasion confess his sins to his Lord. He was strong yet vulnerable at the same time.

This was a man who loved his earthly family, his spiritual/church family and God more than life itself. I do not doubt for one second his unconditional love for all of these mentioned above. To quote my cousin, Jessica, from her outstanding eulogy at his funeral, he had a "quiet sincerity" about him that brought respect and a love from others for who he was and what he stood for. He was the patriarch of our family, the leader. I see so many of his amazing qualities in my dad, which is strange because they aren't blood relation. How often do you see a father-in-law have that much positive influence over his son-in-law? When my days are numbered and I am standing on the cusp of meeting my Savior, if I look back and see even a portion of my life turned out like my grandaddy's then I will be pleased.

Everytime I would leave the house, for whatever reason, after visiting my grandparents my grandaddy would always say "Don't rush off." Even the last time I saw him alive when he was in the Hospice House, he was barely talking and couldn't keep his eyes open. I leaned down and told him I had to leave and that I loved him. It was tough because I knew it would probably be the last time I would see him alive. He said in a faint whisper "don't rush off." See I'm going to end this a little differently. I'm going to say "Do rush off." Go be with Jesus because you deserve to be with your Savior, free from the pain in that shell of a body. I'll see you again one day.