[Nfbwv-talk] Just Wanted to Share

[Smyth, Charlene R]

Hi NFBWV Family,

I was thinking of my dad and just want to share the eulogy we gave him:

DAD'S EULOGY


Walter "Buster" Smyth, Sr. was married to Jane Hetrick Smyth for over 60 years.  They were married on October 15, 1955.  He was the father of five children, Keith, Walter, Cindy, Arlene and Charlene. He was the grandfather of four, great grandfather of 10, and great-great grandfather of 2. He was a navy veteran with four years of active duty and four years in the reserves.

Buster always worked hard to provide his family with everything they ever needed; and the key word is "needed" - a family, a home, clothes, and food. As the children all look back on Christmases past, they always got what was on the top of their Christmas list, which each of them probably only having three or four things on it as there were five children. Buster and Jane always made sure the kids always had the one thing they always wanted most for Christmas; Arlene remembers getting a cotton candy machine one year, a Barbie makeup doll another year, and a record player another year - they were never disappointed.

Cindy remembers Dad going to her home and her husband, Fred, told Dad that their son, Roger, had spilled red Kool-Aid on their blue carpet making it turn purple in that spot, and Fred said that he had tried everything to get the stain out and just could not get it out and he didn't know what else to do. Dad looked at that stain and thought just a little bit and turned to Fred and said, "I know what to do, mix up five more gallons of Kool-Aid and pour it all over the rest of the carpet".

Charlene remembers as they were getting ready for a family cookout that Dad went walking through the living room putting on his ball cap and singing, "I'm too sexy for my hat, I'm too sexy for my hat."

Keith remembers the time that Dad went to his Uncle Basil's, who lived on the Halleck Road, to get an old tractor.  The tractor only went about 10 miles per hour, so when Dad was going down Hunsinger Hill, he decided to kick it out of gear so that the tractor would go faster, and boy did it ever go faster, but it didn't have any brakes.  Mom and Keith were riding in a truck behind the tractor and they said that the tires on that old tractor were just shaking away, and when Dad got to the bottom of the hill, he was shaking also and said that he didn't know what ever possessed him to do that.

Walt remembers when Dad and his brother, Grover, decided to make homemade brew and they bottled it and stored it in a cupboard in the basement.  The first hot summer day as they sat in the kitchen, you could hear from the basement - BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! And all the bottles exploded except for one.

Besides remembering their Dad as an easy-going and funny person, they also remember the dedication he had to his family. As all five of the kids had medical problems and it seemed as one of them was in the hospital at one time or another, which is where their Mom needed to be at the time, Buster would work all day and then come home and cook dinner, wash clothes, and take care of the kids.

Buster was a wonderful cook and made the best hot sausage hoagies ever! The family remembers watching the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday evenings, and the times Buster would make either peanut butter cookies, ice cream floats, popcorn, or milk shakes for them to eat while watching the show.

The family remembers how funny he always was, although sometimes Jane didn't always think so. Especially, on one occasion in the mid-sixties when Jane had just taken her hair out of pin curls and fixed it, and she came outside where they had an above ground swimming pool and Buster picked Jane up and threw her in the pool.  The whole family laughed and giggled, but Jane was not happy and an all-out family water battle followed.

The kids remember a winter snowstorm and huge piles of snow and Buster asking, "Who wants vanilla ice cream?" Of course they all shouted that they did, so Buster put on his boots and coat and grabbed the biggest bowl they had and went outside.  As all five children crowded around the door to watch, Buster filled the bowl full of snow and then came back inside and added sugar and vanilla; they all thought that it was the best "ice cream" ever.

What a wonderful father he was!  Life wasn't always perfect, but his dedication to his family in good times and bad times showed the family what a loving husband and father he was.

"Grief never ends... but it changes.
It's a passage, not a place to stay.
Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith...
It is the price of love.



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