Vene Brent Kunz

It's always so hard to say good-bye to family members, but I found comfort in writing about my Grandma Johnson when she passed away last June so I thought I'd do that again for my Grandpa Kunz.

On Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at the age of 85, my Grandpa Kunz passed away. He'd been pretty sick for awhile and so it wasn't a shock to get the phone call that evening at about 8:30. My Grandpa lived in Blackfoot, ID and when his condition worsened my parents took several trips to Eastern Idaho to be with him and see him and offer their support. On the evening of the 10th my parents got to the hospital and there my dad and my Uncle Brent gave my Grandpa a blessing and 5 minutes later he was gone. My mother said it was a beautiful blessing and that my dad had blessed him with many great things. She believed he was waiting for a blessing before he left us.

My Grandfather was a very spiritual person and very active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and my Grandma Kunz were great examples to their children and grandchildren when it came to worshipping.

Grandpa was also, as far as what I experienced as his grandchild, a devoted family man. He and my Grandma had six children, Brent, Isabel, Janis, Frank (died of SIDS at 6 mos), Harold, and Deanna. With his children he was blessed with 17 grandchildren. I remember as a kid looking at the front steps of Grandma and Grandpa Kunz's as we drove up to see if they would be there waiting for us. They usually were. When the car was stopped it was a stampede of children as we piled out of the van and ran to get to Grandpa. He always had M&M's in his pocket for us and we'd each get a little handful.

Grandpa was a great husband. He was married to my Grandma for 53 years. Grandma passed away in 1997 and I never realized how much he loved her until I saw him without her. There were times that Grandpa was gruff or frustrated with Grandma but there was always a tenderness in how he looked at her. Grandma was a diabetic for as long as I can remember and she had really bad shakes so Grandpa had to help her with her shots before every meal and every time she needed to check her blood sugar. Grandma was frequently doing this so it came to be that there weren't many places to take the shots that weren't painful. Grandpa would wince just as Grandma did and look up at her and ask her if she was okay.

When we lost Grandma, Grandpa was also lost for a time. His home turned into visible memories of Grandma. Her quilts were out, her pictures of her teaching days hung on the wall. Pictures of Grandma I'd never seen before emerged and decorated every corner of his home. It can be said without question that he loved and loved completely.

Grandpa went on a lot of family vacations with us when I was a kid. We took a 32 foot RV across the country into Maine and back to Idaho and Grandpa and Grandma came with us. It got cramped and we were still really young so we had tons of energy. I remember looking into the back of the RV while we were driving and seeing Grandpa and Grandma asleep together with his arm around her and their bodies were rocking with the motion of the RV. We thought it was so funny that they were so tired all the time. As the trip progressed I think Grandpa lost his patience with my little brother, John, and bribed him with a quarter to hold still. He also found a red bandana and tied it under his chin like an older women trying to cover the rollers in her hair. He was a kick and always made us laugh. We also took Grandma and Grandpa on yearly trips to Yellowstone Park and when Grandma passed away we took Grandpa with us on our trip to Chile. Grandpa was a fun traveling companion because whenever he got tired or angry he'd say things that he was so serious about but we all laughed when he said them because they sounded so funny coming out of his mouth. I think this just frustrated him further.

Grandpa was a proud homeowner and kept his house very clean. He was a great gardener and it wasn't unusual to find him pulling weeds in his garden. Once, he got all five of my siblings and I outside to help him weed. My mom is also a gardener and every Saturday in the summer she'd wake us up early to weed her enormous garden. We hated it so when Grandpa asked for the help I'm pretty sure we all groaned and whined, but once we were out there the time quickly passed and with 5 sets of hands the work was quick. I actually remember having fun doing Grandpa's weeding because he'd set us all up in a line at a starting point and say, "Go!" and we'd race to the finish pulling all the weeds in our area as we went. Weed racing turned out to be a hit.

I feel like my Grandpa was a great man and I will miss his angry humor, his funny songs he'd sing us, and his bear hugs that were so hard I swear my eyes popped out of my sockets. Although it is hard to say good-bye I am so happy to think that he's finally been reunited with his sweetheart after 11 years of separation. So I say good-bye to my last grandparent and look forward to the time when I'll see him and all the rest of my grandparents again. They've left me a great legacy that I hope I can add to in a way that would make them proud. Thanks, Grandpa, I love you.