Death and Memorial of George Cressman

A few weeks ago Brett was given the bad news that he had lost his grandfather on his mother's side. It was hard news to take because Brett had unfortunately not been close to his grandfather and didn't really know him very well since childhood.

We had heard from Brett's cousin Kim a couple weeks before the death that his grandfather had not been doing well, and had been praying that he would pass peacefully. When he did pass, the family decided not to have a viewing/funeral the week of his passing, but scheduled a memorial service for three weeks later.

We found his obituary online, as well as news stories on The Washington Post and The New York Times honoring his life and achievements in weather prediction.

For the weekend of the funeral we opened our house to Kim (Brett's cousin) to stay and attended the service. Since Brett's memory of his grandfather was minimal and he had suffered from Alzheimer's for the past 7 years we really got the opportunity to learn about and "meet" at man we never knew during the service. Brett's cousin Gannon gave an especially touching speech which really see who he was as a grandfather and family man, and we heard other people go into his dedication to community service, and work in meteorology.

Though it was a sad reason to get together, we were able to reconnect with the Cressman (Brett's mother's madian name) side of the family, who were the nicest people. We ended up back at his grandmother's home after the service for a luncheon and got to look through pictures and even take home some of Brett from his childhood.

We really hope to keep in touch and that we get the opportunity to see more of that side of the family.