Wilbur Ratzlaff

Keith's grandfather Wilbur passed away on Tuesday. This picture was taking in June with Keith, his Dad and our boys. Wilbur was 98 years old. Here is the eulogy Keith will be sharing at his memorial service this weekend.

Grandpa Ratzlaff

Wilbur Ratzlaff could fix anything. In fact, he probably fixed most all of your TVs at one time or another. The flashlight that didn’t work, he fixed. When the battery in that flashlight didn’t work, he fixed that too-- and it wasn’t even a rechargeable battery. In his younger years, Wilbur was a pilot of airplanes--big and small. He did a pretty good job of not crashing the real airplanes, but when he crashed the radio controlled versions, you guessed it--he fixed them too. I enjoyed watching him fly his airplanes and even more than that I loved watching him fix things.

In recent years he gave up on the airplanes, but he did not give up on solving problems by fixing things. In fact, about 8 years ago at the age of 90, having had multiple hip replacements, a passing neighbor yelled up “does Viola know that you are up on the roof, what are you trying to fix?”

On Christmas morning 2005 the Goessel fire department was called to my Grandparents house. Apparently the blower motor in the furnace had gone out. Everyone was fine but this was quite a predicament—a cold Christmas morning in a small Kansas Town. By noon, my Grandpa had called a friend in a neighboring town drove to his parts store and fixed his own furnace.

I always enjoyed hearing the stories about Grandpa long ago. He had the first TV in Goessel. Every Sunday they would put the TV with the 4 inch screen on the front porch next to the 80 foot antenna. It’s no wonder that when a talk radio program was debating whether the Soviets or the Americans invented TV a Harvey County resident called in and told everyone that it was Wilbur Ratzlaff who invented it!

3 weeks ago I visited Grandpa. He wanted me to help him figure out why his hearing was so bad. Now, I had seen him recently and knew he had grown quite weak; after all in my professional experience most people in their 90s that don’t use hearing aids…well, they just don’t hear very well. When he said next time I needed to bring my flashlight to look in his ears I knew I needed to find an otoscope and do it then. One of the wonderful Bethesda nurses found one and much to my amazement his ears were completely packed with wax. I was both humbled and honored to help him solve this problem.

This same visit, I asked him “Grandpa, how does it feel to be 98?”I realize that this probably wasn’t the most philosophical question to ask but there are very few men as intelligent as Wilbur that live that long. He simply said, “Well, that’s pretty old. I really feel pretty good. I feel like I could walk right out of here.” What a blessing to say that at 98.

Grandpa’s statement about “walking right out of here” reminded me of another one of Grandpa’s traits…and one that my father inherited as well. When my Grandpa was ready to go, it was time to go-- and he was going. My grandma could still be eating supper or be in the middle of a conversation, but Grandpa was in the car--with the motor running. I’d like to think that in the end, maybe just this once, he was patiently waiting for God to reach down and tell him, “Wilbur it is time for you to join us, we have been waiting for you.”