Guy Adams Richards -- or in my house -- "Grandpa Richards"
Grandpa was born on 19 April 1919 in Pleasant Grove, Utah. His parents and my great grand parents are Guy Smith Richards and Roxie Cornell Adams. He was married to my Grandma Clarice Vervene Larsen on December 26 1942 at a courthouse in Washington DC. It was just them and some random stranger that they asked to be a witness. Grandpa told me that it was rough on Grandma to not have anyone around. She cried. Grandpa had a good friend out there who was a wealthy Jewish guy that helped them get on their feet. Grandpa told me that this guy owned a furniture store and he totally set them up with everything they needed.
I have great memories of staying down at Grandma and Grandpas house. Every morning we woke up to the aroma of Folgers brewing. Funny how smells can really engrave memories. I would always eat toast and eggs at the morning breakfast. They had a honey pot and the dipper looked just like a beehive on the end. Cool looking I guess but it made for some awkward spreading. We would go down in the morning and collect eggs from the chicken coop below the house. That was always an exciting adventure.
Grandma and Grandpa had a pink tree at Christmas time that had fake birds in it and it spun around. We always went down there on Christmas morning. The routine was for us to wake up insanely early around our place and open presents. I'm sure we were on the road by 8 or 9 on our way to American Fork. Grandma and Grandpa were always very generous to everyone. I can remember getting all of my grandpa's change he saved up for one of my birthdays. To me it was like getting a bag of gold!
And speaking of trees, I was a young boy I can remember falling out of a tree at Grandma and Grandpa richards house. I remember it being a pear tree in the North East corner of the back yard. I didn't fall too far in this tree because a broken branch went through my arm and hung me in the tree. One of the great perks about getting skewered at Grandpa Richards house was that I had immediate medical attention. He took me down the road to his clinic and stitched me up. I watched his hands carefully work every suture until I had at least 16 pulling together the mangled mess on my arm. Pretty cool to have a grandpa that was so well versed as a doctor. He delivered thousands of babies but his experience went far beyond primary care and OB work. He was instrumental in elevating the cardiac services in Utah. He really was a gifted physician.
Grandpa was a strong conservative. We had long discussions about his concern for the country. His conservative beliefs could also be seen by the books behind this chair in the picture above on a loaded shelf. He crushed out a lot of books during these years from authors like, Bill Oriely, Sean Hannity and Glen Beck. He read a lot. Grandpa was a hard working man who put his heart into being a great doctor and a provider for his family. It bothered him greatly to see his country falling apart because of lazyness and corruption in Washington DC. He was not happy about Obama being elected President either. In addition to all of the large medical and patriotic books, his collection of gospel related books began to overtake all others in his last 10 years. Grandpa was always caring, but he could also come across gruff too because of his deep scratchy voice. The way we greeted when I was younger was with with him saying "Hello" in a deep scratchy voice followed by a handshake that we would both squeeze really hard until my hand just couldn't hold up anymore. (He had a really strong grip!) There was a time that Grandpa had some struggles again with his heart. I went down to St Marks to visit him. During that visit he asked if I would give him a blessing. One of the nurses on the floor was an elder so I asked if he would assist. Don't remember a lot about the blessing, but I do remember that he was blessed with the promise of restored health and the spirit was really strong! That experience changed our relationship. I saw a change in him. Never had I ever heard my grandpa tell me or any of my siblings that he loved us. That started to change as he began to really catch fire with the gospel. I was also able to be a witness to Grandpa and Grandma's sealing to eachother as well as my mom and uncle Guy on August 20, 2003. Another really powerful event! From that time, when we greeted it was always with a hug and Grandpa never missed an opportunity to say I love you. He and I would meet up often for lunch during those last 10 years. There was a random little diner down on main streed that we would frequent. I would ask him about a lot of things including his advice. I was crushing out college so figuring out a carrer was pretty high on my mind, so Grandpa was willing to offer his thoughts. He offered to help me with medschool if I had the desire to. He had a great reputation and some pull at George Washington where he was an alumni and shared with some confidence that he could help get me in there. That said, I asked him if he thought it was a good idea to go down that path. He was pretty clear that the med profession had changed dramatically during his time of practicing. Reimbursment and income was less favorable, insurance was much more complex and stressful, and legal woes for physicians were crushing. He said that if he were to make the decision to go into medicine at this time he would have a much harder choice. I was close to making the leap and hunting down the med school route. I frequently wrestled with teh decision but in the end, my path to chase down a route of business and sales pulled me stronger. Glad I had those days and all those talks with Grandpa.
On one occasion, Jenn and I were cruising down to Lake Powell and we decided to stop off and stay with Grandpa. Keat was with us and he was right around 2 years old. Keat was a heck of a handfull during the day but especially at night. He refused to go to sleep and just wanted to sit in Grandpa's lap. He must have sat there for a couple of hours with him which was really unusual for Keat to do. Obviously it was something that Keat needed but I can remember Grandpa relishing the moment. I think it was something he needed too. Just take a look at the way Keat is looking at Grandpa in the picture above. He had a tight connection with Grandpa. He really loved him. Keat doesn't remember much about Grandpa now, but I'm sure when he sees him again, those two will carry on just like before.
Grandpa died at age 91 in his home in American Fork on Sept 15, 2010. He is a great man. Gonna be great to see him again one day!
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