Grandpa Marvin

I am taking the liberty of Sharing what was one of the proudest moments of my life. To see my son share, with confidence, about his experiences and connection to my father. At the memorial for Dad, Devon was the star of the show.

Grandpa Marvin
By Devon Skadberg

I just want to say some things about grandpa Marvin. I am very blessed to have had the opportunity to come and stay the spring of 06 with him. If I hadn’t I would have never gotten the opportunity to get to know someone as amazingly awesome as he was. The memories I have of him are very recent but I believe the characteristics I discovered in him were ones he had his entire life. What I respected most was how I could state my opinion and belief on a subject and if he didn’t agree he would say something along the lines of “I disagree because….etc.” Then he would go no further. We NEVER got into an argument. He was very willing to accept what someone would believe and still love them for who they were. He would take me to my church which he almost completely disagreed with, but he would still let me go to and be glad that I was where I felt comfortable. He is an excellent role-model for me. He will not be forgotten.

Friday when we were burying him, I saw the vase sitting there…something was missing. A golf ball! I said to everyone, “You know what grandpa would love to have? A hole-in-one.” I knew that he would have at least one golf ball in the trunk of his car, sure enough he had a brand new 18 pack of Noodle golf balls. I got one and set it next to his vase. I couldn’t help but smile, that was the one thing grandpa would want to be next to for eternity.

I always remember seeing him in his chair reading a book or watching a black and white movie about WWI or WWII on the American Movie Channel. I would usually join him. He and I would always have a root beer float once a week, of course I would always try and sneak another every now and then. I might have been a bit of a rebel in my school work but I am very grateful to grandpa for taking the act that he did when I needed a place to stay. He said immediately said yes, he didn’t even think twice. He will ALWAYS be a hero in my book.

Two days before he passed away I had been thinking, “Man, I should call grandpa I haven’t called him in a while.” I did just that and I am very glad I did because I would have felt much worse if I hadn’t called him. Being in Ames these past few days has felt emptier than before. I really miss him as well as how I miss having someone to guess which elevator will come first. Most of the time the one he would guess was the one that would show up first. I miss having that root beer float with him. I miss him saying that I listen to “Noise” all the time. Most of all I just miss him. I think we all do. He was an amazingly awesome person.