Memory

Clifford Leslie Moore

A few months ago I was playing the piano.  I had some music that I had printed off from the internet.  The song was "Oh My Father" but it was arranged to the tune of "Come Thou Fount".  As I sat and tried to play and sing at the same time I glanced up to this picture of my grandpa sitting on my piano.  First I thought about how I would play the piano for my grandpa while he patiently listened through all the mistakes.   He was really one of the only ones who would sit and listen to me play, even if I wasn't too good. I also thought about how the song "Oh My Father" was sung at his funeral.  He died in an accident when Matt, my oldest, was just a few years old.  Although my grandpa had lived a full life it was so sudden it took my breath away when I got the call that he had been killed while working on his motor home.  It was almost impossible to believe. This was the first time that someone I knew well and loved had died.  I had never been to a funeral before then.  It was a sweet experience, one that strengthened my testimony of life after death and temple ordinances that prepare us to enter back into our Heavenly Father's presence.  I remember seeing him in his casket, dressed in his temple clothes and I felt the spirit powerfully telling me that my grandpa was ready to be received by his Heavenly Father and that the covenants we make in the temple are real.  There is life after death.  Although I had a testimony of that already it was the first time I'd had a powerful witness that I felt to my core. 
A few weeks after the funeral we sang, "Oh My Father" in relief society and my eyes filled with tears.  I pictured my grandpa in his temple clothes and I felt the spirit whispering to me, again, the truthfulness of eternal families and life beyond the veil. 

During my grandpa's funeral, the verse of the song that struck my the most goes like this....

"When I leave this frail existence, When I lay this mortal by, Father, Mother, may I meet you in your royal courts on high?  Then, at length when I've completed all you sent me forth to do, With your mutual approbation, let me come and dwell with you."

I knew that my grandpa had completed all he was sent to do.  I knew that he was were he needed to be.  My grandpa was one of the kindest, most patient people that I have known.  He was always serving others and I knew that he was still serving on the other side of the veil.  I'm grateful to have had him as a part of my life and like to think of him as one of the many spirits that watch over me. I cannot see them but I know they are there.