I want to
take the opportunity to thank all of you for all that you have done for our
family over the last couple of weeks. It
is a difficult thing to lose a husband, a father, and a wonderful friend.
My father
and mother are both, people of wonderful character. They are both
examples of the love that comes from following God and his teachings. They
exemplify the love that comes from people that live the gospel of Jesus Christ.
As the
cards and letters, and text messages role in, there was a common theme. Frenchie was a wonderful influence on those
that responded. He loved those that he served and set an example for them to
move forward and achieve something in this life. He could motivate, uplift, love and yes he
had an amazing sense of humor, he could always say just enough to put a smile
on your face.
My dad
taught me many skills growing up. One of the most important was the ability to
work. He was a project guy. Anything
that broke or needed to be fixed in the house, he fixed it. We didn't
call a plumber, we didn't call a mechanic, we didn't call a carpenter, a
painter of a gardener. We were for the
most part we were self sufficient and he would devise a plan and figure out a
way to some how fix what had broken. After he had fixed it, you got the
sense that he felt so much joy after his accomplishment. It brought him joy to beat the problem. He never let it beat him.
I can
remember hovering over a car at night, in the dark, holding a light, trying to
fix a car so we could use it the next day. He would not only show me, but
then he would let me do it to gain the experience.
As a kid had
an addiction, I loved Slurpees and candy.
He taught me to work with my hands, and work hard. If I wanted a Slurpee, or some candy, I couldn't go in and ask for cash. I had to find jobs at early age, and I
supported my own candy habits.
Because of
this work ethic, I feel that I have had success in life because I was willing
to go out and work hard for whatever it is I needed or wanted.
He was not
a perfectionist, and this is where he and my mom could struggle.
I can
remember as a little kid, that he and my mom were not good at working on
projects together. One of the roughest memories I can remember is when my
mom and dad decided that they would wall paper a hallway in our home. After
about a half hour, I think it was only two lengths of wall paper, my dad got mad, and left in the car. As
a young boy, I wondered if he would ever come back. Eventually he did and they
worked out the problem. The next Saturday, for some strange reason, they
thought that they could pick up where they had left off and after about an
hour, my mom got mad and left in the
car. She also eventually came back, but
they didn't try to work together on projects much after that. It's a good
thing that hallway was very short. But
they were able to realize their strengths and weaknesses and made
compromises. My dad did not hold
grudges. He might get mad, but he was
also able too get over it quickly and move on.
Later on
in years, his repair work continued, but was reduced to moving along much more
quickly, by using a big roll of heavy duty tape for just about anything. This
was the tape that he used to tape bags of cookies together to sell in Costco
and other large warehouse stores. If something
broke, he would go and get the tape and just start wrapping it up. He
also, always carried a razor blade in
his pocket which was also one of the tools of his trade from working at mothers
cookies.
To this
day we still laugh out loud for his installation of a stereo in his cookie
truck. He had the ability to take some metal brackets, screws and clamps
to install the radio to the dash, but he pulled out that big roll of tape and
did a wondrous installation job. He went
round and round on that radio with the tape, and there were so many layers, I
think it was earthquake proofed.
Everyone
new him as the cookie man. They knew
that he drove around in a big purple truck, that said “Mother’s” on the
side. They might tease him a little bit
for his job, but they were also out in the back of the store standing by his
truck waiting for him to come out and ask him for a pack or two. Everyone knew about the big purple cookie
truck and would follow him to stores to get some of their favorite
cookies. In death, he was known as who
he was, a man that loved life, his family, and make the best of the situation
that he was in. None of the cards or
letters mentioned cookies. They mentions
the influence he had on their lives and how they loved him for that.
In my
dealings with my dad, you always knew where you stood. He would always
tell us that he would trust us as long we didn't give him a reason not to. When
you crossed that line, he would appear quite suddenly and apply the punishment,
it was swift and unforgiving. If some one reported wrong doing on our
part, he didn't ask many questions, and delivered swift justice. He would
not defend us even if we were a little bit wrong. If we were a little
wrong, we were wrong. He provided no excuses to others for our behavior
or reasons why we may have done it. He would not hold grudges, he would
discipline you and then he got over it. I respected him for that. My friends and I did some stupid things that
many times he would overlook, but some times even he had to deliver some
discipline to our friends. They
understood and respected him for it. We knew that he loved all of us and
thought highly of each one of us.
He taught
me to love love building things, anything, tree houses forts, go carts,
anything that rolled.
HE TAUGHT ME HOW TO BUILD MODELS. My dad
would build them with me and taught me how to do it. You would pick out a
plane or a car open the box and the model contained little small pieces. To build the model, you would take these
small pieces, glue them together with special glue. You would need to use
rubber bands, little weights to help bind the pieces together, it was hard to
believe that these little insignificant pieces would make any thing at all. As
I progressed, the little pieces would be bound together, with the binding power
of the glue, the model over time would begin to take shape. As it
progressed, you could begin to see the model take shape and come together to
look like ALMOST what was on the front of the box. As the pieces came
together, the plane or car would take its full shape and I would be tempted to
take the plane and play with it. The problem is, to do it right, there
would be painting to do, decals to put on, and many other details would need to
be done to take the model to completion. This was the principle I learned
from my mom, that when you do a project, you do it right, or not at all.
When I
left on my mission, I thought I would miss Linda who had been the love of my
life for the previous 9 months. As my mission progressed, I realized it
was my dad that I missed the most. He was at my side on service projects,
sporting events, working on my car, going to priesthood meetings together,
playing pig in the front yard with all of my friends, going to the junk yard to
look for parts for my car, buying and selling cars with me and my brother,
which were usually pieces of junk. He
loved to be with us and we loved to be with him. Even our friends loved
to be around my dad, he was just one of the guys, he could always put a smile
on our faces, with a joke, a story, or something that he did as a kid. He would love to go out in the drive way and
play horse or pig with us. He always
came up with the craziest shots to make and then would make the basket. His
style was classic and he was idealized for his coolness. My friends and I both knew that he was cool.
The number
one thing that my dad taught me was the importance of having a strong loving
family. He didn't need nice cars or a
big house. He was not a big fan of
material wealth. He loved his wife and
his family and wanted to be with them as much as he could. After the got married, he would always stop
by our homes, just to say hi and see how we were doing. He missed his kids and wanted to be around
them. They were his pride and joy, his
reason for living. He loved talking
about his family and the closeness that we all shared. I think one of the greatest principles of the
gospel that he loved, was the eternal nature of the family.
IT IS OUR
BELIEF THAT THE FAMILY IS CENTRAL TO THE CREATORS PLAN FOR THE ETERNAL DESTINY
OF HIS CHILDREN
Just as
making a model takes time, patience and long suffering, the pieces will not
stay together without the special glue.
HIS family unit was of utmost importance to my dad and he was the glue
that held us all together. He realized
that we were all different as kids, but he knew what was needed for with each
and every one of his kids. Obviously I
was his favorite, but he spent time with all of us. If he didn't visit us, he would call us and
see what was going on in our lives and the lives of his grandchildren.
As you can tell, his family was everything to
him. As the patriarch of our family, he
did all that he could to somehow bind us together with the power that comes
from the gospel of Jesus Christ. We were
bound together with spiritual glue, and our family, as it grew, came to resemble the look of a family that
is centered on the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Our family has been bound together not only in this earth life, but in
the world to come. That glue comes the through the binding power of the
covenants and promises that we make with God so that our family can be bound
together for eternity. I know that I will see my Dad again.
As members
of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we believe that The
gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored again to the earth for our benefit. We believe that we are here for a divine
purpose, as literal sons and daughters of God.
D&C
76:22-24
I
have been sealed to my family in the temple by the holy priesthood, which binds
families together forever.
I am
certain that the way that we as the posterity of Frenchie Hardy Pulsipher can
honor and respect his name, it to live our lives in such a way as to follow his
example. To love god, to love our
neighbors, to strengthen our family units, so that we to might be able to
receive the blessings of having a wonderful family on this earth and in the
world to come.
