ride hard with marv

we are almost to november, so it's about time i get caught up on the last several months... i guess we will start with this:

on may 7th, my grandpa lange passed away at my sisters house in california. he had congestive heart failure and pneumonia. i've been trying to write this post for so long, but i just can't quite find the words to adequately describe what a wonderful and awesome man he was, or my feelings about it all.

 

my grandpa quite simply put, was the coolest.

i hope it is okay with my sister rachael -- i'd like to post a bit of what she wrote about my grandpa in may (this was also used in his obituary and at his funeral as well)...

My grandpa was amazing.  He was brilliant and creative and so ahead of the curve on so many things: He rode his bicycle to and from work way before anyone else thought to worry about carbon footprints (he retired in the 1980s). He designed and built his dream home to be highly energy efficient, with all sorts of unusual building materials, long before anyone cared about green design; he was even featured in a trade magazine highlighting his innovation.  He juiced up disgusting things into smoothies (hello, wheat grass, my old friend) decades before supermodels and trendsetters made green smoothies a Thing.

He was a prolific hobbyist photographer who inspired my own interest in the art when I was young.  I'm proud to have hanging in my living room a photograph he took in Hawaii in the '40s while on leave from the Navy.  He is likely the only reason I have any baby pictures of myself at all, LOL (my parents were not so much camera people).  He was a great documentarian of his family life in a way that I'm not (I'm terrible at the candids) but which I admire tremendously (and which a couple of my sisters seem to have inherited).

He felt passionately about healthful living and naturopathy; I think he viewed modern medicine generally, and pharmaceuticals particularly, as some kind of scientific priestcraft not to be trusted.  (Also not to be trusted:  Dairy!)  He made a point to eat natural, non-processed foods and he remained active for as long as he possibly could.  He celebrated his 80th birthday with an 80-mile bike ride.  (He was looking forward to riding 90 at 90 before fate and pneumonia and CHF intervened.)

Who else has a grandpa that cool?  Unless you're related to me, put your hands down.

 

5 months later, it still is so weird to me that he is gone. we used to visit him and my grandma in california when i was really little -- but i don't remember much from that time. most of my memories of them are from once they moved to utah and built a house in bountiful. i grew up seeing them all the time. Christmas eve's spent there, sleepovers, family dinners. such fond, fond memories. he's just always been here, such a big part of my family. and honestly, i wish i had been better at spending more time with him in my adult years. 

they asked all the grandkids to write some memories and things they loved about grandpa down for the funeral services... here is what vince and i contributed:

vince:
The first thing Marv ever said to me was “Did you know that your head weighs 12 pounds?”  I thought to myself “when did he get a chance to weigh my head without my noticing?!” 
I remember at a family function, one of the great-grandkids -- I think Ethan -- brought a kids dress-up fireman hat over and asked Marv to wear it.  Smiling, Marv bent forward so that Ethan could put the hat on him.  He was still wearing it two hours later.  Most of the family never saw that Ethan had put the hat on him, yet no one even batted an eye at seeing Marv sitting there engaged in pleasant adult conversation, wearing a child’s fireman hat.  I don’t think anyone else could have pulled that off quite like Marv.

mary:
like rachael, grandpa's photography hobby really is what got me in to photography as well. one of my favorite things to do growing up (and still!) is to look through his many photo albums. i could look at them for hours! he had an eye for portraiture and capturing people naturally and candidly. those photos will always be a treasure to me. because of his ability to capture the every day moments and emotions, i wanted that in my life as well and ever since i can remember i have tried to keep a camera with me everywhere i go so i can document my life. i want to be able to have photos of all stages of my life that my future children and grandchildren can pour over and reminisce and enjoy. he's given us all such a gift in those photos.

one of my favorite grandpa memories is doing the 80 at 80 with him. it was such a cool thing to experience with him and the rest of the family. and in true grandpa fashion -- he beat us all to the finish line! here we were, 20-somethings and our 80 year old grandpa could cycle faster + farther then us! i love that about him.

i remember we used to go up to his house and he would offer us wheat grass juice (before it was trendy!) and we girlies would be so grossed out, but we'd drink it anyway! he always wanted to include us in his health kicks. i also remember when i was pretty young he used to make his own fruit leather and i loved it, and always wanted more! 

i remember in high school, for a school project i needed to conduct an interview with someone. i remember immediately wanting to interview grandpa about his time in the navy. i remember going up to his house with my mom one afternoon and sitting with him in his dining room and just chatting about his different experiences. i thought it was so great that he would take the time to sit down with his granddaughter and help her with an assignment. i loved hearing all his stories and felt like i got to know him better from them.

i have always liked to brag about him -- that i have the coolest grandpa around. i loved grandpa's happy go lucky personality. you could almost always see a smile on his face, and usually as he spoke to you there was always a laugh in his words.

 

here are some pictures of my grandpa that I love!