Grandpa Pierce

This last weekend was a tough one for us as Mandy found out that her Grandpa Pierce passed away on Memorial Day, May 26th. Grandpa Pierce was an amazing man who served so many people. He served in the Korean War, volunteered for 20 years with Habitat for Humanity in the Bronx, NY, Boston, Baltimore and Kansas City.

After talking with Grandma it was evident that God had taken Grandpa the way that he wanted. Although sudden, in the end I think it was the best for him. As Mandy put it in her letter to be read at the funeral, "Grandpa's body just couldn't keep up with the things he wanted to do."

One thing that Grandpa loved were hats. Every time I saw him, he was wearing a hat. He had quite the collection from a hat that was "Half a Bubble Off" with a level on the bill, to a "Chief Executive Officer: In charge of diddly squat" So the family sat down for a Grandpa hat picture. I think he is in heaven laughing at us.

Although death is a hard thing for anyone to accept and know how to deal with, it is something that provides a chance for family and friends to come together and share the good memories. I spent a lot of my time in Kansas City wrestling with the thought of death and what that would look like in my life when God decides to take my grandparents, parents and God forbid, me. What will happen at my funeral? What will people say? Who will show up? I contemplated this quite a bit and tried to remember that I only have one shot at this life. There are no do overs.

Mandy's letter for Grandpa Pierce's funeral

Mandy Fiechtner (grand-daughter)
Before I start this letter there are a few things you need to know about my grandfather and I. Let’s just say my blue eyes are not the only thing I got from him. As a warning you must know that some have even had the audacity to call us “long winded”, but what they didn’t understand was that we are storytellers. And I can’t think of a better tribute to my favorite story teller than to tell the story of his life as experienced through my eyes. Of course all of you know my grandfather was the master and I his mere apprentice, but I will try my best to make him proud.
This is by far the hardest thing I have ever written, not for the reasons you may think though. It is just that trying to condense the story of the greatest man I ever knew into a few pages is not easy. But this is what grandpa would have wanted. So here are a few of my favorites of the man, the myth, the legend, my grandpa.
I think the conversation started, “Man grandpa when I got my license gas only cost 89 cents.” Then my dad promptly replied, “It was 50 cents when I got my license.” And in true form grandpa retorted with, “Well when I got my license they paid me to get gas.” That was typical grandpa.
Another of my favorite grandpa moments involved a large chocolate ice cream cone. And if you didn’t know my Grandfather, he did not like chocolate. I was about 8 or 9 and we where in Massachusetts visiting. We were all sitting in the van, each of us holding an ice cream cone and outside the van stood grandpa with a cone in each hand. It quickly became clear that grandpa had somehow ordered one too many cones. With a bit of frustration in his eyes and his least favorite ice cream in his hand, in one fail swoop he ate the top right off the cone. He didn’t think it was so funny but me and Amie and Grandma sure did.
There is of course the infamous swordfish request that I have not lived down to this day. We were at a seafood restaurant and grandpa had ordered swordfish for dinner, so of course I order swordfish for dinner. And in all sincerity I looked grandpa in the eye and asked him if the waiter was going to bring us the sword with our dinner. I still love swordfish and have never eaten a piece without calling to tell him about it, I am still waiting for that sword though.
I could tell so many stories about my grandpa’s legacy, like the time he licked every snicker doodle in the batch and everyone still ate all of them before he got home. Or the stories of how he was one of the shortest guys on his basketball team. Or the trips we took to Walden Pond. Or my favorite, he would always tell me “you have to put the sugar on before the milk or you’ll shrink and be short like grandma.” There are just too many to mention.
But the stories that really stick out in my mind have to do with the thing my grandpa loved the most, helping others. How many people can say their grandpa laid tile with Jimmy Carter. How many are privileged enough to know that their grandfather was a part of providing housing for thousands of people? How many are lucky enough to have their grandfather teach them how to build a rabbit trap, and a table and a house? How many people can say that their grandfather taught them how to love others more than yourself, taught them the greatest legacy that you can leave this world is to help others? I know that my grandfather was a rare breed and I count my blessing everyday that I had the most amazing example of how to live my life to its fullest.
From the day I saw my 60 year old grandpa walking across the rafters of a church 30 feet in the air I knew that he was something special. From that day on I thought, man if my old grandpa can do it than so can I. From before I can remember we were building things together, or should I say grandpa was building and I was learning. When the day final came that I could put my learning to the test I relished every moment of the experience. I stood on the site of my Habitat build and I knew that every action I took was a reflection of my grandfather’s legacy. Of course I wasn’t on the site more than a few days and I had grandpa on the phone begging him to come out and help me. And of course he came and of course he taught. The moments when I was able to stop and watch him in action are the ones I hold onto the tightest. Because it was in those moments that I saw most clearly all the people my grandfather touched; I saw how his actions had and continues to touch so many lives. His single minded focus to serve God and further His kingdom was evident in everything he did. He served not for his own benefit, but because that is what God called him to do.
The greatest lessons I learned from my grandfather were not how to build stairs, or fix a leaky faucet, or how to supervise a crew of volunteers. The greatest lesson I ever learned was how to use the abilities God has given me to help others and to further the kingdom of God. That is how he always lived his life; he was defiantly a man on a mission. I can only hope to do half as many things as he was able to do in his lifetime.
As I reflect on all these things I have been trying very hard to make heads or tails of why this had to happen so suddenly. At first I thought maybe God was in need of a new set of steps to get to his throne and he needed your help. Then I thought maybe Jesus was in need of some new stories, if that’s the case, be sure to tell him the one about Uncle Joe trying stuff his dog into the butter churn, I always loved that one. But I think maybe it is that your spirit just out grew your body. It just wouldn’t let you do all the things you wanted to and so God thought you would be better off in heaven. And as hard as it for me to understand, I think He was right. I asked grandma how many friends she thought you had already made in heaven, we both concurred it must be a lot. Be sure to tell Grandma Ruth hello for me and that I missed her ice cream cones. And tell my Grandma Dorothy that Luke has her cute little button nose.
And don’t worry about us too much; I’ll check up on grandma for you from time to time, we both know how ornery she can be. And when Luke is old enough I’ll be sure to teach him how to build a rabbit trap, maybe this time we’ll actually catch a rabbit. And Amie and I will be sure to keep Dad company at the basketball tournament. And most of all Grandpa don’t worry about me. Because as long as there is someone to listen, heck even if there isn’t anyone to listen never stopped me before, I will tell your story. I’ll be sure that the world knows just how amazing you were. To me you’ll always be grandpa but to the world you will be the man, the myth, the legend.
Love,Your blue eyed angel