Time Experience Thoughts

[NOTE: Double-click on the arrow in the center of the movie immediately below.] Dear Scott, We are so glad we met you. So glad we know you. So glad we know you and your heart so well. So glad you love and respect Carrie. So glad you love your boys. So glad you are who you are. So glad you are part of us. So glad you love and honor the Lord. We are SO glad. With all our love, Scott & Becky

Eugene Russell Vanatter Eulogy August 17, 1932 - January 16, 2008 Eulogy delivered by Scott Vanatter, his son, January 22, 2008, in Fort Scott, Kansas. REMEMBER My Mom, our dear mother Dorothy May (Lifer) Vanatter, my sisters Gina and Tracy, the entire family, including Dad’s sisters Loretta and Kathleen, and I . . . thank each one of you for joining with us this morning. Thank you for your loving expressions of care and concern. The good people here at Cheney Witt Funeral Home have offered the most kind and comforting service; our heartfelt thanks to you, Jared, and the whole staff. Tears of Sadness and Joy Today we are here to remember Eugene Russell Vanatter—“Gene” to most of you, including to our Mom . . . but Dad and “Grandpa Gene” to us. It is entirely appropriate that we shed tears of sadness—and also tears of joy—as we remember Dad. DEATH TO UNDERSTAND ETERNAL LIFE Faith whispers to us that life is eternal; that our personal existence does not end upon our death . . . we live o...

Closely, his heart next to your heart , He holds you; yes, now when you are young, But even later as you grow older. He knows you; who you are, Who you were before this earth-time, and who you are becoming. Face to face you talk and talk over many things, over everything – As friends, as best friends. Even though trials and troubles are all about, You see through it all, eye to eye , and appreciate The beauties of this wide wondrous world. Side by side you work together in your garage, and in the yard; In your neighborhood, and in the Kingdom. Even more than the beauties of this earth, You comprehend together, pure mind with pure mind , the simplicities and complexities of the Eternities – The great principles that reveal truth, And what is of real worth. Soul to soul -- together with your dear Mother and loved ones – You reach to the heights and glories Of the highest and best that is deep within. Your father and you . . . you are one. Scott L. Vanatter, 4 July 2003 (Poem for Ryan ...

Together alone, as I watched him there asleep, I gazed deep into that angel face. Every angle, every curve, every shape… Every peek into his soul … did I trace. That first day that held him; I held him close for a while. And back and forth his eyes followed mine it seemed. I wondered. My mind wandered. It drifted upward , And then I dreamed. What will he become? Who will he be? I wonder what he sees. And then I remembered how long he’d been – Eternities, upon eternities . His father that raises and cares for and loves him -- And helps him now to grow, Has already seen and accomplished, spiritually, More than most will ever know. The glory they trail together , having come from such lofty heights -- And having lived with those Great Souls -- Will spread throughout their every shared path, And bless all those with whom they sow. What this choice son will see, and what he will become, Will largely mirror the reflection he beholds In the lens of his father’s life and eyes ; Even in ...

Jared Demke, 1957 ~ 2006 Hallelujah, All the Time Without the slightest exaggeration, I count it as one of my life’s great blessings that Jared Demke was my friend. To paraphrase Brigham Young regarding Joseph Smith, “I feel like shouting Hallelujah, all the time, when I think that I ever knew [Jared Demke].” So thankful am I for the love and perspective of thirty years of close friendship. The Things of God For more than fifteen of those recent years, my wife and I have been privileged to have Jared stay with us in our home in northern Virginia, during his usual twice-a-year business trip to the DC area. When not visiting in person Jared and I would talk on the phone -- often. Ginger related to me that one of his friends commented that talking with Jared on the phone was like going to Disneyland. I wholeheartedly agree – the printed theme on the sign outside Disneyland is “The Happiest Place on Earth.” That’s Jared. He brought prodigious amounts of happiness and shear joy -- and ligh...

Rol Allen, 1919 ~ 2005 Eternal Nature * About one hundred fifty years ago, the poet William Wordsworth began writing one of his most inspiring and insightful pieces on what he deemed a crucial idea: that of man’s eternal nature; not only that we all would continue to live on after death, but that we, each of us, came from somewhere before we were born. AND that knowing where we came from, and who we were then and who we really are now, at our very core, makes a big difference. He got the poem to a certain point, setting the stage for illustrating his main idea, but then laid it aside for a year and a half while he continued pondering the subject. He came back to it and penned these words: Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us (our life's Star) Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home: Character John Roland Allen - “...