{"id":226,"date":"2008-09-12T14:19:06","date_gmt":"2008-09-12T18:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/a-great-generation-passes"},"modified":"2018-04-13T23:40:05","modified_gmt":"2018-04-14T03:40:05","slug":"a-great-generation-passes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/a-great-generation-passes.html","title":{"rendered":"A great generation passes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>“This is the generation of them that seek Him…”\u00a0 Psalm 24:6 (KJV)<\/p>\n

My wife’s father, Garmon Whitfield Conner, passed away this past Wednesday. He died suddenly of a heart attack. Our family is in shock.<\/p>\n

As I sit in a Roanoke hotel room writing this entry, I can’t help but think about how much I’ll\u00a0not only miss\u00a0him, but the generation he represents. Garmon (or Papaw as we called him after the grandkids came) was part of the “Builder” generation. They were the ones who gave birth to us “baby boomers.” They are the ones who built and planted much of what we now enjoy.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, we spent the evening at Garmon’s house. We walked around the house and land he worked so hard to make into a home. His two acres, covered with fruit trees, grapevines, and gardens, all reflect the labor he spent and the dream he had for a home. September in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia means that a lot of those trees and vines are ripe with fruit. We enjoyed tasting peaches, pears, grapes and Virginia apples.<\/p>\n

“Where did Papaw get all these different trees and plants?” My\u00a0son Jonathan\u00a0asked.\u00a0 “Were they here when he bought the place?” He continued.<\/p>\n

“No, I remember him planting some of these.” I answered, as I reflected on the 31 years I’d been coming there. “The truth is no one eats an apple from a tree they planted. We all enjoy the fruit of an earlier generation. Papaw planted these trees, but we get to eat\u00a0their fruit.” I said.<\/p>\n

The photo above is a favorite of mine. The look on his face is classic. Whoever took the photo probably asked him to look their way as they took the picture.<\/p>\n

My guess is that he gave that look, as he said something like, “Can’t you see I’m busy cooking you supper?”<\/p>\n

The look was just his way of joking. He was always ready to give. He was part of the great generation.<\/p>\n

I plan to remember him by telling my kids and grandkids about his generation’s willingness to sacrifice. I also hope to lead them to seek after the Lord the way he did too.<\/p>\n

I’ll miss Garmon Whitfield Conner. His initials are the same as mine, GWC. I’ve often kidded my wife that she was looking for a man who had the same initials as her father.<\/p>\n

I hope I have more in common with him than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“This is the generation of them that seek Him…”\u00a0 Psalm 24:6 (KJV) My wife’s father, Garmon Whitfield Conner, passed away this past Wednesday. He died suddenly of a heart attack. Our family is in shock. As I sit in a Roanoke hotel room writing this entry, I can’t help but think about how much I’ll\u00a0not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061,2062],"tags":[2615,2616,2614],"location":[],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-weblogs","tag-death","tag-generation","tag-obituary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6789,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions\/6789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}