Grampa

This picture was taken on our most recent trip to Illinois, last year.

My grandfather, Kenneth Palmer, my last surviving grandparent, passed away in Peoria, Illinois. He was just a few days past his 90th birthday.

He had been in fairly good health until a little over a month ago, maybe a little hard of hearing, but otherwise his mental faculties were there, he could walk, drive, etc.

Although he did make a try of it, he never really was able to move on from losing his wife of 60+ years, my grandmother, when she passed away a couple of years ago after a battle with cancer. Until the end, they had been an independent couple. He and grandma had moved in to a nice retirement community in the 1990s, something to which they had been looking forward for a long time.

Grampa estimated that he would have been dead before 90.

Grampa met my grandmother during World War II, while serving in the extremely dangerous California theater. Grandma had come to California, in part, to escape the cold weather of the middle of the country. My mother was born to them in California. My grandfather then dragged Grandma kicking and screaming back the Midwest, to Peoria, where they went on to have two sons.

Grampa is survived by his daughter, his elder son, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. His younger son passed away several years back due to complications of diabetes, and Grandma had been ready to go ever since losing her youngest.

Kenneth Palmer
May 24, 1916-May 31, 2006