Great Grandpa Hanke

We are really enjoying our time here in Yuma with Sherry’s Dad. The weather has been really nice and his home here is a monument to his life of hard work and endless energy. Sherry and her sisters have been working on Russ and Shirley’s family history and story.

It is not always easy to get him talking but once they can get him started his stories are fascinating. It will be great to get them recorded so they can be passed on to his posterity. At the dinner table the other night he was telling us about when he left home as a teenager to hitchhike around the western states working on farms and ranches to feed himself and friend he was traveling with.

He talked about sleeping along side the road and crawling into a culvert for warmth. Working long hours in the fields and traveling on foot in the snow. Grandpa Hanke is not afraid of hard work.

When Grandma Hanke first saw this place and it was for sale, she went home and brough Grandpa back to see it. When they bought this house it had wooden fences and a gravel front yard. Grandpa Hanke had the wooden fences replaced with brick and laid the bricks in the court yard, planted the shrubs and trees and re built most of the house including the various decks and awnings.



















I hope all the grandkids will get a chance to visit Russ and Shirley's beautiful Yuma home in the near future and experiance the history here.

It is 5 o’clock in Yuma and it is cooling down from 86 degrees. Grandma and I attended Yuma 7th Ward this morning and enjoyed the sun and warmth during an afternoon drive around town.

Grandma is reading in the shade, Great Grandpa Hanke is watching the Daytona 500 on TV with Aunt Lynn, Debbie and Uncle Jack.

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I am on my computer (as usual), having just reviewed the recent posts on the families many blogs so I decided it was past time for an entry from us. After diner we will be watching the Winter Olympics.

As a family we have seen some mighty changes in our lives and in our country over the last year. We have spent the last year tying-up loose ends and preparing to face our future. Many unexpected things have happened to reinforce the realization that Grandma and I are entering a new phase in our life. It has been very emotional for both of us, but the spirit has been strong and our testimonies continue to grow.

Grandma and I arrived in Yuma Feb 1st, only 11 days ago (it seems much longer) and it has been great to relax, regroup and start dreaming again. Today we both read Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s article in the Ensign where he discusses the importance of looking forward rather than backward in life. We highly recommend his remarks if you have not read them (Ensign, Jan 2010, 22–27). What he says put’s into prospective the changes world is facing today.

In his remarks he quotes from the poet Robert Browning.

Two years ago (when we celabrated our 40th aniversity) Grandma gave me a plaque that I have on my destktop to this day which has the first line of the same poem

Grow old along with me!The best is yet to be,The last of life, for which the first was made:Our times are in his handWho saith, “A whole I planned,Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!”

Well it’s down to 60 degrees time to post this and go watch TV. Goodnight.