From Danielle...

“Have you got a minute?”
Gene Waltrip, my granddaddy, was an amazing husband, father, and above all person. I think that everyone will agree when I say he is so dear to us and will be greatly missed by all of his loved ones. I would now like to share with you all some stories that demonstrate how he lived and how he taught us to live.

Out of the many audacious stories Granddaddy has shared with me about his childhood over the years this one is without a doubt my favorite:

It begins when Granddaddy and his brother, Uncle Lewis were teenagers living in Williamsburg. One evening they both had dates. However, before they were allowed to go out they needed to take a cow to the neighbor’s to be breed. So to save time they decided to take the back seat out of their father’s brand new car and load the cow into the car! After the cow was in the car the boys went to ask their dad for his permission to borrow the car. Their dad kind of laughed it off and told them “That’s impossible.” They responded with “Dad, we’ve already done it!” Needless to say by the end of the night the car was no longer brand new.

Now aside from this story being completely comical it also shows Granddaddy’s ingenuity and persistence. Granddaddy has always been a hard worker and very early learned the value of a dollar.

A more recent story that is equally as comical is the story about Granddaddy’s hearing aid:

One Halloween when the family was gathered at Vicki’s my dad and Uncle Kevin were wondering why Granddaddy couldn’t hear them. Well finally dad came up to Kevin and said “You know why Dad can’t hear us? Because he has run his hearing aid through the wash but he’s gonna keep wearing it anyway because he paid good money for it.”

Well Granddad never did like to buy anything new. He’s mess around with things until they eventually worked again and if that didn’t work maybe he would have traded or swapped it for something else. (Usually ending up with the better end of the deal!)

A short but very touching story happened just this Easter when Kelley, Davis and Vicki had come to visit their grandparents:

On Good Friday Kelly, Vicki and Davis spent sometime with the grandparents. As they were leaving Granddaddy asked Davis to “give him five”. Davis slapped his hand and walked out with Kelley and Vikki. As they were leaving Davis blew Granddaddy kisses. He blew some back to Davis and said “I’ll give you five.” Referring to the five kisses.

Granddaddy always said when his children called him for help with their little ones “You’ve just gotta love’em.” Granddaddy always gave lots of love to everyone. And when that was all he had to give he always had plenty.
Speaking of love…. Granddaddy was a man of many pastimes. He loved solving puzzles, like the peg board puzzle and playing family games like Balderdash, “socc- -the- logger -butch.” At our gatherings by the lake he and “the boys” would play horseshoes. He loved to dance the night away to Bill Haley and Glen Miller. He constantly trained and played with his black and tan coonhounds. He loved to email his family and watch baseball on his beloved laptop. He also loved boats and the water. My fondest memory of Granddaddy was when he visited Florida and he, dad and I all went out on a boat. He was so pleased to be out at sea. He also loved to share his experience by teaching his children. He would give my dad driving lessons and no matter what the weather was, snow, sleet, drizzle, he would always say “Whatever you do, don’t hit the brakes.” He loved to call Grandma “Possum Ears”. But most of all I think he loved to love.

He taught many people how to live and love with his huge, pure heart.

This quote described Granddaddy well:
“I will not wish the riches, nor the glow of greatness, but that wherever thou go, some weary heart shall gladden at thy smile, or shadowed life know sunshine for awhile. And so thy path shall be a track of light, like angel’s footsteps passing through the night.”
Just to end on a personal note-
Whenever I looked into granddaddy’s clear blue eyes, I knew I was home.