There is a funeral this week in the same church that I was married in. Many of the people that will be there Thursday were at that wedding. It will probably be the first time many of them will be together again at that church.
My son George was asked to do a eulogy at this memorial funeral for his grandfather. Last night I went into his bedroom and asked him if he was getting prepared.
He replied, “I’m just going to wing it dad…”
“I’m going to talk about how genuine PopPop was. I’m going to mention how much he loved and took care of everyone. I’m going to make sure people know that he will be missed.”
“I think that will nail it perfectly,” was my response.
He asked me what I would say about PopPop if I was doing a eulogy…
….Ed Bergmann left a huge model train board in his basement. The collection began with the original transformer and steam locomotive given to him when he was a boy. Every Christmas he would treat himself to a new train. From freight to passenger, modern to antique….. The Bergmann Railroad is a magnificent collection.
He found joy in showing railroad to anyone and everyone, but he never let anyone touch the power. He also didn’t let anyone remove or replace locomotives from the shelves to the tracks.
His wife couldn’t touch them. His two children couldn’t touch them and the maid wasn’t allowed to clean or dust the area.
One day Pop was running the “City of New Orleans” along the tracks with a three year old George Shepley.
His grandson noticed a signal and a light wasn’t working at an intersection in the middle of the board. The grandfather said that it hadn’t been working for awhile and was too hard to reach.
George climbed off of his plastic step stool and crawled under the tight quarters below the railyards. I was watching and listening from the other room where the television and family room was located.
“Be careful down there George, don’t touch anything!”
I could see George was already jagging around with wires underneath. This wasn’t going to turn out well. I was about to get yelled at to grab my son.
Suddenly Pop yells out, “Oh George! What have you done?”
Muffled from underneath the toddler replied…. “I moved a couple things around Pop.”
“George…….. George Shepley! You fixed it, You fixed it ...thank you George!”
Relief came to me when I realized my son didn’t break anything.
That was the day George earned PopPop’s trust. From that day forward the two of them were thick as thieves. George was the first and only co-engineer on the Bergmann Railroad.
Since that day, George has taken freight trains off the board and replaced them with passenger trains. He has taken off diesel locomotives and put down steam locomotives. George has put the fallen trees back up and people laying along the platform that have also fallen after years of neglect.
This will be the first Christmas that PopPop won’t be around to pick the train. George will have to pick what passenger line runs on the Christmas Express.
I look back at that day… it was around that time we discovered our son was given an incredible gift. Seeing the world through the spectrum. PopPop showed us how lucky we were to have such a beautiful son.
It will be a gift Thursday morning to hear a grandson talk about his grandfather. This passing was the first major loss for George. The first of many….
It was truly a gift to see those two enjoying that train collection together.
I can only imagine how elaborate the train board is in heaven. Nobody can touch it until the day a grandfather and his grandson unite.
Not even Jesus or Casey Jones.
