The Left Coast Biased

There is a famous saying of Aristotle which I'll paraphrase: call no life successful until it is over. The idea is that you cannot fully appreciate a life until it is complete, and you can look at the whole thing. Standing here at the end of my grandfather's life, I know that every person in this room, all of his beloved brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, and his children and grandchildren have all had the same the same thought about this life, which we all express in different ways. I have heard it a thousand different ways over these last weeks: I hope in I have the kind of life that he had. He led a full life. He was ready. He was so proud of his family. This is what I think Aristotle had in mind when he thought about a successful life.
Our grandfather was the kind of man that when he decided to do something, he did it with a passion and excellence that had left him no option but success. When he decided to serve his country he gave them everything that he had and it was recognized with the list of awards sitting here before you. He decided to have a family. I think the evaluation of how he and my grandmother did on that score can be measured in my cousins, and my siblings. They did such a tremendous job with their children that those kids could not help but raise a terrific collection of grandchildren, which brought a shine to grandpa's eye that I swear could have lit this whole room whenever he thought about his grand kids. Which is a direct reflection on the job he and my grandmother did, and as he sat there in the hospital last week this is the thought that he kept coming back to, thinking about his kids and his grand kids, as he'd say to my grandma, "I did good, didn't I?" To which she'd respond, "Well, I think I helped."
We loved watching the two of them together. I don't want to go on to long, I'll let us go so we can all go tell more stories about him to each other, but what we always admired the most about my grandfather was the complete, passionate and absolutely shameless love that he had for my grandmother. He decided to love a woman, and just like he did with every other part of his life, he did it with such energy and excellence that it was an absolute joy to witness. My grandfather didn't have any regrets at the end of his life, because when he put his mind to something, he did it, and well. This is what a great life looks like.
We should be so blessed as to live as he lived, to love as he loved, and to be loved as he has and will continue to be loved. We all should be so blessed.