Saying Good-bye December 18, 2007

Today we had the funeral. It has been a whole week since the accident and it feels like it was such a long week. It was hard to wait that long to have the funeral, but there were a few bumps in the road along the way. The weather was so bad that they couldn't get the men off the mountain the night that it happened and so they had to wait until the following day. It was hard for us to wait, especially for my mother-in-law, Quenalee. There is an investigation that goes along with the plane crash and so the three great men that we lost that day were sent to Salt Lake to have an autopsy done and so it delayed us getting them home. We were finally able to get them home and start the progression of grieving for our husband, brother, son, father, and grandfather. The funeral was beautiful! All 6 of Galen's boys got up and gave parts of the life sketch and then they got up and each one of them shared some memories of Dad. I am a little partial because I have been in the family for a long while and have watched all of these men grow up. They were all amazing! I was so proud of all of them. They shared such special stories of their dad and also such sweet emotions about how they felt about him. Alex, the fifth son is serving in Brazil right now on and even though he opted to stay in Brazil and finish out his mission, he was there in spirit and Ryan read an e-mail that Alex had sent about his experience when he found out about his father. He is such a great kid! I know that he has been comforted. I am sure that it has been hard, but he has shown such strength and knowledge of forever families and has strengthened all of us through his testimony of the Savior. It is so hard to let him go, but what a great man we were all able to spend the years that we got to with him.