Grant Laird, Jr. Blog

Some of you may not know my father-in-law Jesse Carpenter passed away last Thursday evening. (11/3/05) My wife, sister-in-law and mother-in-law have been spending a lot time taking care of him while he’s battling with his health due to brain cancer. Often, I would go store and get foods and goodies for them.

It was extremely uncomfortable when he had his last breath in his home with family members standing by him. We had to wait for someone to pick him up for two hours later. It was longest two hours in my life. I am just happy he wasn’t in pain anymore but we surely will miss him forever.

In past two weeks, we knew his time is about to expire – I was able to get a lot of old pictures of Jesse. (from childhood to adulthood including newspaper clips) I scanned them all personally and put them together for PowerPoint slideshow. We also have some digital pictures too. It was about 150+ pictures together. (About 75 MB all together in PPT format file)

We had our viewing last Tuesday and funeral on Wednesday. It was sad and happy moment during the service. Since funeral doesn’t provide equipment like projector or computer, I had to bring my own laptop and flat screen monitor and also another one from my sister-in-law. We set it up one inside the chapel and one in hallway. Everyone loves it during the service.

I ended up making several copy of PowerPoint slideshow on CD and gave to relatives. Actually it is not my idea; I was told that another funeral did similar ideas.

After service was over, we went outside and did quick service in cemetery area. It was nice and warm outside – I never saw the casket vault till that day. It was huge and beautiful with his name on it.

Another thing, I didn’t know they recorded (audio) whole time during the service. It was useless for me but it means a lot for family to listen and remember forever. Since they recorded it on CD, I was able to duplicate it and gave to my children and relatives.

Overall, it was very hard to believe he’s gone forever. I remember him when I was dating Misty in 1987. In 1988, Misty and I got married and had our first daughter. We named her Jessica after her grandfather Jesse – his first grandchild. He has five grandchildren all together.

Dallas Morning News Obituary: Click here.

Grant W Laird, Jr.
http://blog.grantlairdjr.com

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