The other's are that he loved to snuggle. He also loved green olives and yummy food. I have a memory of him making scones. I also remember him making steak, and I remember that he loved to eat the fat off the steak and I thought that was so silly.
I also remember a few weeks before he died he would have me come lay by him in bed and sing to him. I always sang Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers. I still cry every time I hear that song.
I remember him and Charlie Wright acting like they were the best of friends. So many of my memories of Dad include the Wright family too. Barbecues and swimming pools and even trips to the beach.
I remember he loved to play his guitar and sing.
I also remember one time watching him comb his black hair over and over and over and look in the mirror at himself with a big smile. I think that vanity definitely got passed down to the Hoopes boys.
A few years after Jaron and I got married, we were living in the parents basement. I was helping Mom reorganize her play room and I stumbled across a video of Dad in the hospital. It was a video of him visiting with Joan and John Carver. He must have been pretty sick, because he was a little out of it. He was so hospitable to the Carvers. He listened intently to what they had to say and treated them with so much love, talking to each of them personally. Making each of them feel like they were important to him.
The video was really long, yet when it was finished I cried, because I just wanted it to keep going on forever. I just wanted to keep listening to that voice. Keep seeing his kindness towards his hospital visitors. I wanted to take in every bit of who he was and put it in my heart forever. I felt like I hardly remember him, and hearing his voice and seeing how loving he was to the Carvers made me all of the sudden realize what I had been missing all these years.
After I finished watching the video, I felt like I was grieving his death all over again. I don't know why it was so hard for me. Maybe because I had just pushed his death out of my mind. Maybe it was because I was so young when he died, that I didn't feel like it was fair for me to still be grieving over this person that was only a part of my life for seven years. Either way, I was all of the sudden very aware of this beautiful person that I was missing in my life.
The weeks after I watched that video were rough. I prayed hard to Heavenly Father that I would feel peace about Dad being gone. The scripture that sent peace to my soul at that time was this:
27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as theworld giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,neither let it be afraid. John 14:27
I did feel peace. And I do feel peace. I have felt comfort that he has been aware of me. I have felt him close by at poignant times in my life, and even had the reassurance that he was praying for me in times of trial. From time to time I still feel an ache that he is gone; on my wedding day, when my kids were born, when I've seen someone that looks like Dad might have looked if he were alive today. But over all I feel peace. I'm grateful that he is ours forever. I'm grateful to know he's still here in my life, even though I can't see him.
"Life does not end with mortal death.Through temple
ordinances which bind on earth and in heaven, every promised blessing predicated upon faithfulness will be realized". Harold B. Lee From the Valleys of Despair to the Mountain Peaks of Hope, August 1971
I also want to echo this quote from Harold B. Lee
"I know that God lives. I know that he has opened the doors to the glorious resurrection. He is biding the time when he shall come again, when the trump shall sound, and those who are ready to come forth in the morning of the resurrection shall come forth to be caught up in the clouds of heaven to meet him. God grant that we may live to be worthy to be among those who will be with him".
That's my prayer and my goal. To live to be worthy to live and associate with all of you and my family with the Savior in the next life.
Here's to 24 years Dad. And who knows how many more until I see you again, but when I do, I hope you still remember our song.
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