A Tribute

Here is a copy of the words Dennis spoke at his Dad's funeral:

This is not a time of sadness, but a time of thanksgiving that we have had the benefit and blessing of having Fred, my Dad, in our lives. The association and time we have had with him, the things we have learned from him, the love we have felt for him, and the knowledge that he has gone to a better place will make this transition in the Plan of Salvation bearable.  

We have received so many blessings, so many teachings from our Dad and Grandpa.  How grateful we are to our Heavenly Father for the experience to have been part of his life. Dad was a natural born coach, and he always took every opportunity he could to coach all of our sports teams when we were kids.  It was his way of spending time with us and sharing his knowledge with us.  He taught us to play fair, be good sports, and never let our team down.

In Doctrine and  Covenants 93:40 it says "But I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth."  This is what he has done.

We realize that God lives, and as our father, God loves us just as Fred loved us.  Our father has now passed on, and we realize that as a special spirit, he had no need to remain longer in this life.  We realize that our father is needed in another place.  It was a blessing to have his as our friend, father, grandfather, and husband.  We have not lost him: we will be able to see him again.  We should remember fondly the time we have spent with him and cherish all those wonderful memories and experiences we have shared with him.  He taught us what it meant to be pure and clean before God, and he was an example for all of us.  We need to place our lives in proper perspective in order to be worthy to see him again.  Because of him, we need to think more about life beyond the veil, keeping ourselves worthy, so our family can be united eternally.  This is what he would want us to do.

Small things make a happy home.  I always saw my father express his love for his wife, our Mom.  I never remember them getting into any argument or belittling each other in front of us kids.  I know my Father loved my Mother.  This is the type of husband and father, that I want to be.  May we all be like Fred and show our love and devotion to our wives.  This is my prayer.

As many of you know, Fred married my mom when I was very small.  I couldn't wait until I was 18 and could be officially adopted by him, take his last name as my own, and be sealed to him.  But he always loved me and never treated me  any different than his other children.  He spanked me just as hard as he did everyone else, and for that I will always be grateful.  I learned how to be a devoted father from him.  I love you Dad.