I stole this blog from NATALIE GODNICK! Thanks :)

I started this post a couple days after my Grandpa passed away, but it has taken me forever to finish it. I had a lot of pictures to obtain, and it also felt so overwhelming to write such a huge post about someone so amazing. And I cried every time I would try to write this blog post. Still do. So, sorry it took so long, but I hope you read some or all of this post whether or not you knew my Grandpa. It would mean a lot to me.
Vernon Joseph Stiel
May 25, 1925 - January 14, 2012

Where do I begin with this amazing man? So many memories, so much love for him, I know I won't be able to put it all in words. At least not how I want to. I know people just won't understand how truly wonderful he was unless they knew him personally.

He was the sweetest grandpa anyone could ask for. So funny and cute, and he made every one of his family members feel like they were his favorite. He had an awesome life full of laughter and family. What a great life this man made for himself!

He was born in Benson, Minnesota on May 25, 1925. He grew up on a farm and learned the importance of hard work. I loved listening to his farm stories growing up, especially the ones about getting the pig drunk, and about hiding his secret motorcycle in the pile of hay and his dad going out with a pitchfork and stabbing the hay .. hehehe

Vern 1929

1940's, Stiel family home

Grandpa didn't go to school past 8th grade and spent his time helping run the farm.

He went to Trinidad for WWII in 1945 and was in the Army Military Police. He never saw action, but he was wounded by flying shrapnel.

He had a lot of funny stories about the war. He was such a prankster! My favorite was the story of him secretly changing the clock of one of the other men, and then the alarm went off at about 3:00 am and the man thought it was later and time to get up. They let him get out of bed and get completely ready before telling him their joke!

I loved my grandpa's chuckle when he would tell me these stories. He thought life was just so funny! He laughed and laughed at anything and everything.

You can see it on his face!

What a stud

He moved to Utah in his early twenties. I asked my mom more information about him moving to Utah and this is what she said: "He moved to Utah solely for photography school. He had the choice between a few schools, one of them New York (a place he loved!), and he said it was about the first time he prayed in his life. He asked God to help him decide where to go, and he felt Utah would be a good place. He didn’t know about Mormons. He said a guy in town said to him “Don’t let the Mormons get ya.” And he didn’t know what he was even talking about and forgot about it until he figured out what a Mormon was."

He met a man named Wendell in photography school, and Wendell was married to my grandma's sister. That's how my grandpa met my grandma :-)

They were married August 25th, 1949.

Grandpa was a catholic and he married a mormon girl :-)

Vern and Shirley

Ain't they cute?

Grandpa was able to finish his education (with the help of Grandma) at Bringham Young University. He fulfilled one of his dreams there- to play football.

My Grandpa Vern was a BYU leatherhead :-)

They lived in Orem where they had their four daughters. Ruth Ann 1950, Marilyn 1952, Elaine (my mom) 1958, and Teresa 1961.

Grandpa was baptized later on, and they were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple in 1957. :-)

From his obituary:

"In 1958, he was hired as a full time patrolman and served the City of Orem for 10 years, becoming the first lieutenant ever of the department. He took photographs of all of Utah county fatalities and was an expert fingerprint witness..... He left Orem City in 1967 and went to work for the Utah Department of Public Safety in Salt Lake City as a fingerprint analyst. He quickly moved up in the department and became the Bureau Chief of Criminal Identification. He was instrumental in creating the first Crime Lab for the state of Utah.... He attended the FBI Academy in 1975, at the age of 50 and had many wonderful experiences while there."

COOL!

He retired in 1987

I was lucky and grew up in the same stake as Grampa, so we were only a 3 minute drive from his house. I got to spend a lot of time with him when I was a teenager, and I cherish that time.
Here are some of my favorite memories and things I loved about him:

*He always held my hand when I sat by him

*Always said "You're such a sweetheart"

*He plugged my nose -
I HATE having my nose plugged, but it never bothered me when he did it

*Had the best hugs

*His sense of humor was awesome and made him really lovable

*PIGS -
Grandpa hated the real animal, but somehow he always got pig stuff. I think it started with a joke way back when and never died. Pig paraphernalia was all over his house! Any gift he got was some sort of pig item.

*Called me either stick lady, toothpick, or broom

*Driving his Jazzy -
About 5 years ago we were in the front yard and saw this old geezer driving down the street in a old man scooter. We had a good laugh when we realized it was him. I asked, "Grandpa, what are you doing?!" He said, "Just drivin' my Harley."

*He loved Harleys!

*He walked nearly every day and collected coins and treasures.

*He found a ring on the ground a few years ago and gave it to me. I wore it from time to time and have been wearing it since the day after he died.

Flowers from his funeral- ring he gave me

*Dumpster diving -
Grandpa wouldn't just try to find coins on the ground. He would search dumpsters too. He made a contraption that would help him pick up coins, haha

When we were cleaning out his house last week, someone found something else he had made to help him get coins out of the corners of dumpsters - it was a long skinny cylinder of wood with a spoon attached to the end of it! He cracks me up.
Mom told me once that she was driving home on 106th and saw an old man looking in the dumpsters at the Jiffy Lube on the corner- it was Grampa!!
*His laugh

*The adorable way he talked- his mouth and voice. Just cute!

*Everyone he met loved him -
He had so many friends. SO many! He was friends with all the people at his bank, his neighbors, made friends easily at the rehab center after he broke his hip. My mom said at his ward on Sundays he was like a celebrity and everyone wanted to talk to him after Sacrament. He would have a crowd of fans around him!

*Teased everyone he met -
He would tease waiters and fast food people and make them laugh. The last time I saw my grandpa was when I went in to Wendy's with him and Teresa's family, and he was being funny with the lady taking our orders. When he finished his order she said to me, "You have a cute grandpa." :-)

*In high school for my choir fundraiser, we sold those metal license plate borders, but they could be customized. I got one that said "My Grandpa is cuter than yours."

*He was always building in his wood shop

-up until the day he died!

He built so many of the cabinets and boxes in here

The wood stuff he made for my mom this last Christmas (he made some for his other 3 daughters as well)

Some random but cool thing he made. I wish he were here to tell me about it :-(

He made this rocking horse

He built himself a SAUNA! (pretty recently too!)

He found this Ute ball in a dumpster and made a case for it (GO BYU!)

Years ago he made this heart and glued on a pig for each member of the family.

He added more little pigs as little babies were born. This is how some of his granddaughters announced their pregnancies to him:

Grandpa LOVED building mini outhouses (this isn't one of his "normal" ones he made a lot of)

He made outhouses fully equipped with "holes" and toilet paper and even little wooden mini magazines inside. I remember him giving one to my cousin Michael and Julie for their wedding, and it was a dual toilet outhouse with a two of those "kid" Barbies inside, one a boy and one a girl, sittin on the pot by each other hahaha

I love love love his wood work.

*A couple years ago, I was at his house with Lynsie and Annalee. We were all sitting on the floor and he was in his chair watching TV. We three were watching him giggling because he looked so cute watching the show. We asked him a question and he didn't respond. I said, "Vernon..." and he didn't hear me still. So I was saying "Vernon. Vernon. Vernon." and he wasn't noticing! We were laughing so hard! Finally I said, "VERN!" before he looked over. We laughed at him and he laughed too and said, "I don't answer to Vernon, only Vern!" SO FUNNY!

*He was always laughing at Bogey and Mom's cats for whatever reason. He just simply found them funny.

*He loved Dustin, and was always concerned about him and making sure he was ok

*His cannon-
He built a cannon. Yes, built it. It's a small scale model of a Civil War cannon. Every 4th of July we would gather at his house and he would shoot the cannon. And it was LLLOUD!

*Him climbing up his ham radio tower behind his house-
And for Christmas he would put lights on it.

*His spikey half-there hair when he'd get a haircut

*He was tough! -
He was hit by a car about 10 years ago and was so bruised up and broken, but he survived. He was in the hospital over and over with broken hip, other bones, bad heart, bad kidneys, but always made it out! He didn't want to die in a hospital.

*When he would laugh really really hard. And that was often!

*He ALWAYS had a story to tell. Some were sad, like some from his career as a police officer, but most were hilarious.

*He would make fun of me for never wearing shoes. When I lived with Mom and we'd go visit him, I wouldn't bother putting shoes on. He thought that was funny.

*When I was a newlywed, I called Mom and asked her how to make Jello. Well she was with Grampa at the time and he was laaaughin and laaaughin. He said, "Do you know how to boil water?" From then on he teased me about not knowing how to make Jello :-)

*His "funny faces" door -

He loved collecting pictures of us family members making goofy faces, then he would print some off and tape them to his closet door in the living room for all to see. This was his last door project:

AND THIS IS MILD
Also for about 3 out of the last 6 Christmases, he put together a slide show of all our horrible pictures and would put it up on a big screen for us all to watch. Hilarious man.

*He baptized me when I was 8.

*He was a witness for mine and Dustin's sealing, and that is so precious to me.

*He loved his family and lived for them.

*He adored his wife and missed her soooo much for the 8 years he didn't have her by his side.

And much much more!

January 14th-

I was cleaning a lady's house with my visit teaching partner when I got a call from Dustin at about 2:00. He said, "Your Grandpa Stiel passed away." I didn't want to believe him and I said, "No he didn't." and I kept saying that until I finally asked how and when. Grampa hadn't been sick, hadn't been in the hospital. I had just seen him a week before when I went to Wendy's with him and Teresa's family, and he was just fine! It was very shocking. I told Dustin, "I can't let this sink in right now, we're not done cleaning." Somehow I was able to hold my composure (except for shaking) for another hour when we were close to being done and I told my visit teaching partner what happened and I needed to go. Apparently Dustin tried calling me 12 times, and Kent had tried calling me too, but I didn't get service in that house. Except for the one call that did go through.

I didn't break down until I was in my house. Dustin and I loaded up and drove to Grandpa's house where the whole family was (except me! Why did I keep cleaning?!)

Teresa, Ruth Ann and my unofficially adopted aunt Dawna had been at Grampa's house hooking up his Netflix for him earlier that day. Teresa had been complaining about not being able to find a short cord with three prongs. Grandpa took a short cord with two prongs, went to his shop, and came back with a three prong cord. He was working up until the moment he died. Just what he wanted. He sat down in his chair and was laughing really hard at something Dawna had said. Teresa said she heard him laughing really hard, then he just stopped and went unconscious. She called the paramedics and had them check and see what his heart was doing. He was DNR so they didn't do anything to bring him back. He took a few more breaths and was gone.

(Teresa thinks he had a blood clot to the brain. Quick and painless)

He literally died laughing- Does it get better than that? Grandpa had just told one of his daughters recently that he just wanted to sit down in his chair and die. That's how he wanted to go. My mom said my Grandpa had been praying for that- to die in his home in his chair and be with his wife. What an amazing last earthly blessing the Lord gave him. What a perfect way for him to go! This brought so much comfort to us all.

When I got to Grampa's house, he was still in his chair. Everyone had been there for a couple hours and had most of their tears out, but I was a mess! Before the mortuary took him, I went and knelt by him with tears running down my face and held his large, warm hand one last time. I was so heart broken. Ruthie bent over to him and said, "I love you, Daddy," and kissed his forehead. Such a precious man, and a great loss.

The grandsons helped the mortuary men move Grandpa's body to the carrying board. They covered him with a blue blanket and someone mentioned that he would be happy with a "BYU" blanket. It was very hard watching them take him out of his house, but as they did so Ella said to her mom,

"Are they taking him to heaven?"

The viewing was the next Tuesday night, and there were SO many people that came who knew Grandpa, and so many who didn't know him but knew one of his daughters or grandkids. Some of my friends came, my mom's bishopric came, friends of the sisters came. It meant so much to us so thank you everyone who came! There was a slide show of Grandpa's life playing at the viewing that my cousin Brian had made. They had pictures displayed and also Vernon's history binders that he had made of his life. It was a great tribute to him.

The funeral was the next day. It was a beautiful service even though it was the saddest thing ever. Ruth Ann spoke as well as Grandpa's police partner and his nephew. They all had such funny stories of him, and so many kind words about how wonderful of a man he was. And he really really was. Words cannot describe.

There was a young woman from for Hearts for Hospice who had played her mini harp for Grandpa many times. She played a melody of his favorites at the funeral. She said that Vernon always asked her to play his and Shirley's song, "Somewhere My Love" from Dr. Zhivago, so she played and sang it for us. She sang it slowly and softly and beautifully. I was bawling with my mom throughout the whole thing. Dustin whispered to me at the beginning of it, "Can't you just see your Grandma and Grandpa dancing together right there?" and pointed to the front of the chapel off to the side. It still brings tears to my eyes to think of it. Tears of sorrow and tears of complete joy for my Grandpa and that he's finally with his Shirley again, dancing!

We went to Provo for the grave site service. My brothers and male cousins carried his flag covered casket. There was a military salute and flag presenting. Watching the pall bearers take off their boutineers and put it on Grandpa's casket was one of the hardest things to see. My "tough" cousins whom I hadn't seen cry yet, lost it. This man touched all of our lives so much. He meant so much to each of us.

He had put a few pennies on Grandma's grave just recently. Someone added more

My brother Kent

My mom's cousin Joanie had just stepped off a plane when she got the voicemail that Vernon had passed away. She looked down and there were two pennies on the ground. She brought them to Utah with her and put them by his casket.