Thomas Warren Barnes (July 29, 1926 – June 19, 2019).
Yesterday my family and I laid my granddaddy to rest in Houston, TX. This past week has been exceptionally hard as we went through meetings with funeral directors, pastors, planning how to honor his life and writing his obituary. Through it all, I was struck by how hard it was to capture this man that I have known all my life into a few photos, paragraphs, and verses.
My granddaddy always was the guy to go to if you needed something fixed, a good laugh or a gore-y war story. I fondly remember catching catfish with him at his lake house, taking them to the house, and watching him help grandmother fry them up to a perfect golden brown.
He could always be found listening and dancing (while he could) to western swing music, beer in hand, with war stories and life advice to share. Though his stories were never asked for, once he began to share them you were drawn into the action of World War II in the Pacific theater, or the Great Depression in Ida, Louisiana, or working as a mechanic in downtown Houston, and wound up listening to his stories for hours. So it was surprising to me that after hearing all these words that he had shared with my family, that we struggled with words to describe him and his loss. I was amazed at how hard it was for us to describe his legacy.
This whole process began to make me think more about legacies and how I want to be remembered when I am no longer on this planet. I want to work on being more present in the everyday, collecting memories over things, and reducing the things in my life that don’t add to my success or happiness. This idea of de-cluttering life, has been bouncing around in my head for a while but now I feel like I want to make the conscious choice to make this more of a priority. I want to honor the legacy of my grandfather making the choice to be present in the moment, enjoy the good parts of life, always lend a hand to those who need it, and remember that there is always time to go fishing.
Below is his obituary if you would like to read more about his life.
https://www.woodlawnfh.com/obituaries/Thomas-Warren-Barnes?obId=4503151#/celebrationWall
