Grandpa Thornley 1928 - 2020

I love this family picture with my grandpa on his 90th birthday
in 2018.

My grandpa Robert Thornley passed away on Tuesday, 10 March 2020.  He was a special man to many but to me he was a wonderful grandpa.  I am certain that it is from him that I learned to love science, popcorn, and burned (we would call them well done) cookies.  When I think of him I think of classical music (but also Mannheim Steamroller, too, for some reason) and deep conversations and curious questions and an ever-learning brain.  He was an adventurer, an inventor and a questioner.  In his "retirement" he started an oral history foundation, learning how to digitize and transcribe stories from cassette tape to CD and flash drive, and he even came up with an idea for how to extract gold from the Great Salt Lake!  He grew the best tomatoes and taught me the delicious secret of celery salt on sauteed zucchini.  I will remember camping trips with "shaggy dog stories" and I've Been Workin' on the Railroad sung around the campfire.  I'll never forget his love for Scientific American Magazine and his advice that "part of what you earn is yours to keep".

One of my favorite stories of the last couple years of his life, that I think shows just the kind of man he is, happened after he and Grandma moved into Maple Springs Assisted Living Center.  He missed his big garden back home and worked out a way to get his hands in the dirt again with planter boxes on the patio.  While everyone else planted flowers, he chose to plant veggies.  And then he taught the cooks the best way to prepare the eggplant he grew and shared with anyone who wanted a taste!  Another from the same time: he started a read-aloud "book club" for some of the residents of Maple Springs.  A friend of Grandma's had been to see the local opera company's performance of the Secret Garden, but still wanted to get more of the story.  Grandma said it was based on a book so she could read it to get the whole story, but since she was nearly blind that was difficult for her to do.  So Grandma said, "Well, Robert can read it to you."  And he did.  A chapter a day.  And after they finished that book, they gathered a couple more people in the library of Maple Springs and he read aloud at least a couple more books with the group.  (The read-aloud revivalist in me especially loves this story!)

I am grateful for all the time I got to spend with him.  He was at practically every major milestone in my life: every birthday cake evening, baptism, piano recital, middle school and high school band concert, high school and college graduation (even my thesis defense!), endowment, wedding, and Sam's baby blessing.  I got to mow his lawn every week in the summer and rake his leaves every week in the fall. We celebrated many holidays and family reunions and Sunday evening visits through my 35 years and I just feel so lucky to have known him for so long!  

I am grateful I got to see him the week before he died.  He was not doing well health-wise, with lots of body systems shutting down, so we knew that the end was coming.  I woke up one Tuesday morning and realized that I didn't have anything scheduled for that day and Gregg could pick up Callie from school, so it was the perfect day to make a visit.  I got to sit with him and my grandma for an hour or so, and while he slept through most of my visit, he would pop in with a few memories or comments about whatever Grandma and I were talking about.  She said, "you do hear more than we think you do!"  A week later he passed away.  My mom and her siblings were all there with him.  And just a day or two later the COVID-19 drama hit big time, which would have kept them from being present as he passed.  So that was a blessing.  He was finally free from pain and got to have a glorious reunion in heaven with his wife Annette and son Robbie and parents and everyone.  I cried mostly happy tears that day.  You can read his obituary here.

My biggest heartbreak was that I wasn't able to go to the funeral on Monday the 16th. The weekend before I had begun feeling a sore throat and cold.  Sam had been sick earlier in the week.  Callie started getting sick on Monday.  In a normal situation I would have gone anyway, but I just couldn't do it with all the recommendations about limiting group sizes (during the funeral planning week the government said no more than 100, then it was down to 50, and by the middle of the funeral it was officially down to 10) and everyone saying, "do not go out in public if you feel sick!"  I was crushed.  But I know he, the scientist, the virologist, of all people, would understand.  We watched a slideshow video of his life as a family during lunch.  And luckily Kylie made a recording of the funeral (on one of his recorders from the oral history projects) and Gregg and I got to listen Monday evening.  I cried and laughed and loved every minute of the celebration of this good, good man.

My aunt Sondra shared pictures of the program and my mom shared pictures at the cemetery:

In the days after he died, I had a good jaunt down memory lane going through all my scrapbooks and photo albums and digital photo folders and facebook posts and blog posts to find pictures of him.  Here are a few of my favorites that I dug up:

Megan posted this on facebook and it made me so happy.
I love this picture of Grandpa!

(I have no idea when these next few photos were taken, but I had to save them when I saw they were added by family friend Elena on the facebook memorial page.  They make me smile!)

Working in his garden.

Adventuring somewhere beautiful,
as usual.

This is Grandpa doing his famous
"levitation" ride to Little Igor.
He used to do this to me, too, complete
with sound effects for going up and
down and it was always such a thrill!

This is in the front driveway of
his house in North Logan with the
neighbors the Kings home across
the street behind him.

Dec 1986 - Grandpa, Randal, Kathryn, Ken,
Christine, Kim, Heather, Amylinn in matching Mickey shirts
at Great-Grandma Thornley's home in Smithfield

Mar 1991 - celebrating my birthday with me (I always thought
it was fun that we shared a birthday month)

Mar 1991 - Grandpa's mother (my great grandmother) Gladys
was there for the fun, too.

Sept 1992 - Grandpa married Velda Mae Egan

Sept 1992 - And we have a new grandma!

April 1993 - at the Logan Tabernacle after my baptism

Mar 1995 - Grandma and Grandpa gave me this Hakuna Matata
sweatshirt for my 10th birthday.

Mar 2003 - 18th birthday party

June 2003 - High School Graduation

July 2006 - Sharing his testimony on the trail near Tony Grove
Lake during a family reunion

July 2006 - telling "shaggy dog" stories at a
Thornley-Willford reunion at Heber Valley Camp

Sept 2006 - Grandpa overseeing construction of his greenhouse
in his backyard in North Logan; he designed and planned the
foundation to be poured into styrofoam forms (here Nate is doing
the pouring).

Dec 2006 - USU graduation (I LOVE Grandpa's Aggie blue shirt
for the occasion)

July 2007 - a photo op to pose by the matching wildflowers
on a walk around Tony Grove Lake with the fam

Jan 2008 - a family outing to the State Capitol building (I honestly
have no recollection of this event!)

July 2008 - just the sweetest scene of Grandpa
and my cousin Peter strolling through Colter
Bay Campground near the Tetons

August 2009 - visiting with his brother Ray at a Thornley-Willford
campout at Willow Flast Campground near Preston, ID (this is one
of my favorite pictures of them!)

Dec 2009 - singing with the family during our traditional
Christmas nativity evening.

Mar 2010 - 82nd birthday party (my aunt Kathryn snapped
this and I think it is just perfection!)

Aug 2010 - at our reception, always so much grandparent support!

Mar 2013 - Grandpa was part of my amazing support crew
at my thesis defense presentation.

Nov 2013 - Great Grandpa meeting
miss Callie.

Nov 2013 - four generations

Aug 2014 - waiting outside the temple for Heather and Terrell
at their wedding.

Oct 2015 - Great Grandpa meets baby Sam.

Nov 2015 - four generations at Sam's baby blessing lunch
(poor baby was not happy!).

Mar 2016 - sharing his testimony to many
family gathered for a combined 88th birthday
celebration for him and 85th birthday for his
brother Ray.

May 2016 - Sam hanging out with Grandpa
during a Memorial Day picnic.

Oct 2016 - Grandpa joined us at the Pumpkin Walk in
North Logan.

Dec 2016 - from the corner, Grandpa oversees the clan playing
chimes in his North Logan basement during our Boxing Day gathering.

Aug 2017 - Cal and Sam enjoying ice cream treats with Great
Grandparents at their new home in Maple Springs.

Nov 2017 - puzzling with Grandpa and Grandma after Thanksgiving
dinner.

April 2018 - more ice cream treats at "Grandpa's
house".

Mar 2019 - 91st birthday gathering with the fam
at Maple Springs

Mar 2019 - Grandpa with his kids

Mar 2019 - a pretty good representation of Thornley grandkids
(there are a handful missing) gather for a 91st birthday celebration.

Oct 2019 - he surprised me by showing up to an outing at the
Pumpkin Walk this year!

Jan 2020 - our last family visit to see Grandpa,
plus cousins!

Mar 2010 - I was hoping to get this blog posted
on Mar 27th as a "happy 92nd birthday in heaven"
tribute to my good grandpa.  I think I made it!
Love you, Grandpa!