A Life Remembered

A few short hours after I wrote the post below, my grandfather, Hambleton Baxter Carpenter, went to be with Jesus. Here is his obituary from the Greenville News, Greenville, SC.

Hambleton Baxter Carpenter, resident Of Rolling Greenville Village, formally of 6 Trails End, Greenville, husband of the late Dorothy Tourtellotte Carpenter died Friday, May 4, 2012.Born in Greenville, Baxter was a son of the late Fredrick Garrison and Mary Hemsley Carpenter.A communicant of Christ Church and former member of the Vestry and Sunday School teacher. A graduate of Presbyterian College he worked as a CLU with Prudential Insurance Company for more than 45 years until his retirement in 1983. He also served as a past president of the Greenville Life Underwriters Association and the S.C. Association of Life Underwriters and President of Estate Planning Council. He was a member of The Cotillion Club, St. Andrews Society, Poinsett Club and past president of The Tarantella Club. He served in the U.S. Army as a Lt. Col. during WWII with tours in Germany, France and Czechoslovakia. Surviving are his children, daughter, Dorothy "Dusty" C. Brownell and her husband I.O. Brownell, Jr. of Greenville; Vicki C. Waters and her husband B.B. Waters III of Greer; son, H.B. "Bud" Carpenter, Jr.and his wife Mary Stewart Carpenter of Mt. Pleasant; 9 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his sister Helen C. Brady and brothers, Richard H., Davis F. and Walter B. Carpenter.A memorial service will be held Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 2 o'clock at Christ Church Episcopal with The Rev. Harrison McLeod and The Rev. Bob Chiles officiating. Interment will follow in the churchyard.
Special thanks to Baxter's Caregivers Doris Acosta, Rosa Torres, Tonya Johnson, Tracy Welchel, Carol Cole, Hospice Care of SC, especially Pam Campbell and the Nurses at Rolling Green Health Care Center.In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Christ Church, 10 N. Church St., Greenville 29601 or to Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC

I am so very sad. At the same time, it's hard to be sad. Baxter lived to be 94. He would have been 95 in July. He is home. He's been ready to go home for so long. He lived a full and wonderful life, which can be seen from the few words above that sum up his life. He had the pleasure of living abroad, marrying a wonderful woman, having three wonderful children, spending his retirement traveling all over the world. He was able to accomplish so much during his lifetime. He lived a long and wonderful life. We are blessed to be able to have him this long.

Baxter was cremated and buried in the same box with Dot. She passed away almost 6 years ago and nothing was ever done with her ashes so they were buried together.  At the burial site, my uncle Bud was allowed to say a few words and he spoke of how Baxter loved people. People who knew Baxter spoke of what a great man he was and how much he loved people. Bud went on to talk about how we should live forward Baxter's legacy of love. He loved everybody. That can be seen from the names of his caregivers listed above. They were all at the funeral .He loved everybody - no matter their social status, color of their skin, or where they worked. He is a wonderful example to me of how I should live my life.

It has been a sweet time of remembrance and hearing stories about Baxter and the life that he lead.

A Love Story: WWII Style

Here's the story:

My grandmother, Dorothy, was married to a man named Victor Miller. They were married in January of 1944 when she was 22. They were together approximately 3 months when he was shipped off to war in France in early 1944. In December of 1944, Victor was reported as "Missing in Action". His death was not confirmed until February, 1945. He was buried in Belgium.

My grandfather, Baxter was a friend of Victor's. When he heard of his death, he wrote to my grandmother and told her how sorry he was of her loss. Well, they started writing back and forth and a little over a year later, they were married. My grandmother would say that they never went on a date before they were married in June, 1946. They celebrated their 60th Anniversary in 2006, the year that my grandmother passed away.

My mother and her siblings have been caring for my granddad for quite some time. He's been bedridden for probably well over 4 years. It's been 6 since his Dot passed away. In January of this year, they moved him to a nursing home. This was a down the hall kind of move. He was already living in an apartment in a retirement community. He moved there with my grandmother about 8 years ago. They were still fairly active but definitely slowing down when they moved out of their home on Trails End - the house where they had lived for 50 years. When Dot passed away, I think my mom, aunt and uncle realized how bad off Baxter really was. And when they realized that they could not provide all the care that he fully needed, they moved him to the nursing home for better care.

In January my mom came up to visit me and brought me one of the most awesome things I've ever been privileged to read. It's my grandparents love letters. My mom just brought me a handful of these letters from Dot to Baxter. And the next time that I went home I got the rest of the letters from Dot to Baxter. They begin in September of 1945 and go through September of 1946, with May and June missing because they were together and were married then.  Mom mentioned that Dusty might have some of those so I emailed her so that I could get them. She has all of the letters from Baxter to Dot. She has had these letters since my grandparents moved from Trails End. She hasn't even read them yet or done anything with them. I do not have these yet but will get them, probably this weekend.

My plan is to scan all of these letters and print them into a book. That's going to be my summer project. It's going to be time consuming and maybe expensive to print this book but I am so excited about reading all of these together. They're folded up in the original envelopes that they were mailed in with date stamps so they'll  be easy to put in order. They have also been pretty well preserved. 

I've been thinking about my grandparents A LOT lately. It could be that it's been 6 years since Dot passed away and Baxter is quickly declining. He may not be with us but another few moments but I'm not sad. I know that he has lived a good, full, long and wonderful life. He is and always has been a wonderful man. And I know that he is going to be with his Savior and to be with his Dot. And I know that is really all he wants. So, as Baxter's life comes to an end, I want to be able to celebrate his life and the love that my grandparents had. That's what Baxter would have wanted. He loved a good party!