Obituary examples for a grandfather

Wilson Yazzie, 83, of Gallup, New Mexico, died April 19, 2026. As a boy he herded sheep with his own grandfather, and he later spent 30 years as a welder for the railroad. He taught all 14 of his grandchildren to saddle a horse themselves before asking for help. He is survived by his wife, Lorena; his children, Benjamin, Marilyn and Shawn; and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Services will be held Friday, April 24, at 10 am at his church.

Dewey Lamar Cobb, 90, of Tupelo, Mississippi, died June 27, 2026. He ran a sawmill for 45 years and kept a box of Moon Pies under the seat of his truck for whichever grandchild rode along. He was preceded in death by his wife, Opal. He leaves his sons, Darrell and Terry Cobb; 9 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren, the youngest born in May. Funeral services are Tuesday, June 30, at 2 pm at the funeral home chapel.

Visitation for Lucien Gagnon, 88, of Lewiston, Maine, will be held Wednesday, January 14, 2026, from 4 to 7 pm, with a funeral Mass Thursday, January 15, at 10 am at his parish church. Lucien died January 10. He worked 42 years at the shoe factory and spoke French to his grandchildren every Sunday so they would not lose it. He leaves his wife, Jeannine; four children; and eleven grandchildren, who call him Pépère.

Harvey Ames Kittredge, 92, of Rapid City, South Dakota, died March 2, 2026, on the ranch where he was born.

Harvey was born in 1934 to Walter and Edna Kittredge and grew up running cattle on the grassland east of the Black Hills. He took over the ranch from his father in 1958 and ran it for 50 years, through two droughts and a blizzard in 1966 that he talked about for the rest of his life. He served on the county school board for 16 years and was a member of the stock growers association until he was 90.

He married Helene Brandt in 1957. They raised four children and, later, a crowd of grandchildren who spent every summer on the ranch. Every May he branded calves with whichever grandchildren were tall enough to hold a rope, and he paid each of them a silver dollar a day. Most of them still have the dollars.

Harvey was preceded in death by Helene in 2020 and by his son, Dean. He is survived by his children, Lynn (Rob) Haugen, Craig (Teri) Kittredge and Anne Kittredge; 11 grandchildren; and 6 great-grandchildren. His grandson Tyson now runs the ranch.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Saturday, March 7, at 10 am at his parish church in Rapid City, with burial in the family cemetery on the ranch.

Nathaniel Lee Grant, 84, of Baltimore, Maryland, died on September 5, 2026.

Nathaniel was born in 1942 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and moved to Baltimore with his mother at 12. He opened Grant’s Barber Shop on Edmondson Avenue in 1966 and cut hair there six days a week for 52 years. Three generations of men in the neighborhood had their first haircut in his chair, including every one of his grandsons, and he kept a photo of each first haircut taped to the mirror.

He married Dolores Mack in 1964. He was a steward at Mount Zion AME Church for 40 years and drove the church van to Sunday service for anyone who needed a ride, well into his seventies.

He is survived by Dolores, his wife of 62 years; his children, Nathaniel Jr. (Pamela), Sharon Grant Moss and Kevin Grant; 8 grandchildren; and 3 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his brother, Lewis.

A homegoing service will be held Saturday, September 12, at 11 am at Mount Zion AME Church, with a repast to follow in the fellowship hall.

Our Yeye, Wai-Kit Lam, died in Oakland, California, on February 11, 2026, a week before Lunar New Year. He was 87. His friends called him Kit.

Yeye was born in 1939 in a village outside Taishan, China, and came to Oakland in 1962. For 35 years he cooked at restaurants in Chinatown, and he cooked for us every Sunday after that, always more food than the table could hold. Every morning at six he did tai chi with the same group at Lake Merritt, and when we stayed over, he made us do it too.

He taught each of us to use chopsticks, then an abacus, and then to count our red envelope money before thanking anyone. He came to every graduation in the same gray suit and always sat in the front row.

Yeye is survived by Nai Nai, our grandmother, Mei-Ling Lam, his wife of 63 years; his children, Edmund (Joanne) Lam, Wendy (Steven) Wong and Jimmy Lam; and us, his seven grandchildren. A memorial service will be held Saturday, February 21, at 10 am at the funeral home, followed by burial and a family meal.

My grandfather, Clayton “Clay” Osgood, 84, of Mobile, Alabama, died on May 22, 2026. Everybody else called him Captain. I called him Pawpaw.

Pawpaw ran a shrimp boat out of Bayou La Batre for 41 years. When I was eight he started taking me out with him every summer, and by the time I was twelve he let me take the wheel through the channel while he pretended to sleep. He could tell the weather by looking at the sky over the bay, and he was right more often than the radio.

He was born in 1942 in Coden, Alabama, and married my grandmother, Wanda Mae Loper, in 1961. She died in 2019, and after that he drove to her grave every Sunday with a fresh bunch of flowers from the grocery store.

He is survived by his children, Ricky Osgood and Sherry (Larry) Parker; his grandchildren, me, Kelsey, Jared and Paige; and two great-grandsons. A funeral service will be held Thursday, May 28, at 10 am at the funeral home, followed by burial beside my grandmother.

Rudolfo “Rudy” Castañeda, 82, of Laredo, Texas, died July 15, 2026.

Rudy was born in 1944 in Laredo and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1963, at 19. He served with an infantry battalion in Vietnam from 1965 to 1966 and left the Corps as a corporal in 1967. He came home to Laredo, married Graciela Garza in 1968 and spent 34 years as a customs inspector at the international bridge.

He didn’t talk about the war for most of his life. When his granddaughter Alyssa interviewed him for a high school history project in 2015, he told her more in one afternoon than he had told anyone in 50 years, and he let her share the recording with the whole family. After that he went to every Veterans Day parade in town with a grandchild beside him.

He is survived by Graciela, his wife of 58 years; his children, Rudy Jr. (Elsa), Norma (Ernesto) Salinas and Diana Castañeda; and nine grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated Tuesday, July 21, at 10 am, with burial and military honors to follow at the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery in Corpus Christi.

Gurbachan Singh Sandhu, 88, of Selma, California, passed away on August 8, 2026.

Born in 1938 in a village near Jalandhar, Punjab, he came to the San Joaquin Valley in 1967 and worked in the vineyards and orchards until he could buy 20 acres of his own. He grew peaches and raisin grapes there for 40 years. He was one of the first volunteers at the gurdwara in Fresno and cooked in its langar kitchen every Sunday for decades.

His grandchildren knew him by his white turban and his morning walk. He took each of them with him to the gurdwara, taught them their first words of Gurmukhi and told them stories of the Gurus every night at bedtime. He liked to say that a farmer’s real harvest is his grandchildren.

He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Harbans Kaur; his sons, Jaswant Singh (Rajinder Kaur) and Kulwant Singh (Manpreet Kaur); his daughter, Paramjit Kaur Gill; and 12 grandchildren. Cremation will be held Thursday, August 13, at 11 am, followed by Antim Ardas at the gurdwara.

Fayez Boulos Mikhail, 79, of Jersey City, New Jersey, departed to be with Christ on October 12, 2026.

Fayez was born in 1947 in Asyut, Egypt, and came to Jersey City in 1981 with his wife and two young sons. He opened an electronics repair shop on Kennedy Boulevard and ran it for 33 years, fixing radios, then VCRs, then phones. He served as a deacon at his church for 40 years.

On Sundays after the liturgy he took his grandchildren for ice cream and quizzed them on the saints of the day. He sang the hymns in Coptic, and four of his grandchildren now sing them with the church choir.

He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Nadia; his sons, Mina (Marianne) and Bishoy (Christine) Mikhail; his daughter, Mary (George) Hanna; and nine grandchildren. The funeral prayers will be held Wednesday, October 14, at 10 am at his church, followed by burial. The family will announce the date of the 40th-day memorial.

Elijah “Bud” Thornton, 76, of Gary, Indiana, died January 22, 2026.

Granddaddy was a school custodian for 31 years and was retired and looking forward to fishing when our mother got sick in 2009. He and our grandmother, Hattie, took us in that year, when we were 8 and 5. He learned to iron a dress shirt so we would look right on picture day. He stood at every Little League game and every parent-teacher conference, and he went to every one of our graduations, the last one in a wheelchair.

He made us wash the car with him every Saturday morning and told us the same three stories every time. We would give a lot to hear them again.

He was preceded in death by Hattie in 2022 and by our mother, his daughter, Valerie. He is survived by his son, Cedric Thornton; his grandchildren, Darius and Jalen Thornton, whom he raised, and four others; and his sister, Ophelia. Funeral services will be held Saturday, January 31, at noon at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.