The Celebration of a Great Life!

Most of you know by now that we lost a great member of our family this week, Dr Emory Lawrence Langdale also known as “Papa.” He had a great life of almost 91 years! He did so many amazing things in his life. You can check out his obituary by clicking here. I want to talk about some of the things in his life that aren’t on the obituary though. These are the things that make him the man that we loved. These aren’t all of the stories of his life, but a few that I was privileged enough to know about…

1) He was very proud of his service in the Navy. He realized during his service time that he had a passion for medicine and that he specifically wanted to work with rehabilitation of Veterans. He spent most of his career helping others. In fact, he kept his medical license renewed each year (last renewed in November of 2009) and a he even had enough supplies for a small clinic to be run out of his house if needed. He was always prepared in case someone needed some medical assistance. His children tell stories of when he was younger that he never left home without his medical bag.

2) He loved to build…He had projects going all the time. He officially built the world’s smallest bathroom at his beach house on Isle of Palms. You could use the shower, use the restroom and wash your hands all with just turning in a circle. I also learned this week about how he had his children hand dig a pool in their back yard! He has built garages and tried to build basements too! His latest project was his home in Walterboro, SC. He built this home in his 80’s! And, he helped his son, Tom, build his log home in Walterboro as well. I can specifically remember Chris coming home from a weekend of working on that home saying “Papa is stronger than I am! He was tossing cinderblocks like they were plastic!” Chris was so proud of Papa.

3) He loved his family! Just this past March we learned that he was going through kidney failure and he had suffered a small stroke. Chris, Tommy (Chris’s brother), Paula (Tommy’s wife), and I all went to go visit him and he lit up talking to Chris and Tommy. With everything else going on, he was so excited to spend some time with his grandkids. A few years ago when he finished his home in Walterboro, he took myself, and several other grandkids out on his new “all terrain vehicle.” He had me drive and told me to test out the brakes. Well, he didn’t tell me that there was really no need for brakes on the ATV because as soon as you take your foot off of the gas, it stops! Well, he braced himself as all of the grandkids went toward the windshield and laughed at all of us. He thought this was a great trick to play on us. Later, we found out that he also did the same thing to my husband and his brother. It is so much fun to remember him laughing at all of us…

4) He had a knack for picking out Christmas trees. He often would pick a tree out of the back yard or one off of his land in Walterboro. And, the trees he would pick were often what we would call “Charlie Brown trees.” They were very typical pine trees. They weren’t full of branches or the most beautiful trees, but I don’t think he wanted to emphasize the tree on Christmas. Maybe he had his priorities straight and saw Christmas as a day for the Lord and not for material things.

These are by no means all of the stories that could be told, but these are the stories that I know from the past 10 years. Papa was an amazing man who lightened the life of all those around him. For those of you that don’t know yet, we are naming one of our sons after Emory. We have already had several talks with baby Emory about how he has some big shoes to fill.

Thank you all for sharing in these memories with me. This past week was not easy, but it is comforting to know that he is no longer suffering and that he had a great life!