A couple years ago my grandpa Alfred Olsen passed away and I wrote the following eulogy
entitled "Follow the Leader" that was read at his funeral. He was a truly remarkable
man, I miss him a lot, and the man he was, is what I strive to be. I was perusing
the hard drive this evening looking for something QA related and rediscovered this.
I thought I'd share since some of these lessons are applicable in the business world
too:
Follow the Leader
Written by Brent Strange in memory of Grandpa Olsen
It’s funny, I always have fleeting thoughts of how I appreciate the little things
about a person or the different things I love about them but I’m always hard pressed
to put it into words or too chicken to tell that person about those things. “I Love
You” says a lot, but doesn’t say much for why. Putting the “Why” behind “I Love You”
is something I’ve thought about for a long time with my Grandpa Olsen but I never
did sit down to tell him. Now it’s too late to tell him in person, so here I am settling
down and am writing it out. I hope and pray that he is listening now…
My Grandpa is the most respectable person I’ve ever met. Let’s cut to the chase: Grandpa
was honorable, funny, kind, loving, giving, non-judgmental, and a man of God. He is
everything I want to and struggle to be. Over the years Grandpa has been a silent
leader for me. Follow the leader!
Follow the leader: give somebody some “bugs”!
My first memories of Grandpa date back to when I was less than two years old. Back
then Grandpa preached at the Assembly of God in Naselle where he and Grandma lived
in the connecting house. I remember in the evenings we would sit in his vinyl, burnt-orange
chair together. Grandpa would bounce me on his knee helping me pretend I was a cowboy
riding his horse. The orange chair was where I first remember getting “bugs”. Yeah
bugs…Grandpa’s way of tickling was giving you little tickling pinches under your legs
and arms saying “You got bugs, BUGS, BUGS!” each bug bite made you squirm and
laugh trying to wriggle out of his reach to get rid of those darn bugs. When the horse
rides and bug bites died down I would sit on his lap, leaning against him listening
to him talk to others in the room. His voice was comforting to me.
Follow the leader: sit on the edge!
Grandpa and I did a lot of fishing. My first remembered fishing trip was frightening!
Grandpa took me to the dock at the Chinook cannery where we sat on the edge to fish
for Perch. I remember sitting on that edge, feet hanging over, and looking down at
the water below scared to death since it was so far down (seemed to be about 20 feet
down to this day, probably was 10…). Grandpa didn’t seem too concerned and my fear
soon went away after we caught the first Perch.
Follow the leader: cast through the brush, the fish are just past it!
Summer visits to Grandpa and Grandma always meant a trip Martin Wirkkalla’s place
to fish in his private lakes. I remember walking behind Grandpa as he led me through
the trees and brush to find those hidden lakes. Fishing would usually start out with
me casting into the weeds and trees but after a couple hours of untangling weeds from
lures, and carefully finessing lures from tree branches Grandpa and I came back with
a few nice trout. Those times were always special to me because we were fishing in
lakes that nobody else could, and we ALWAYS caught fish!
Follow the leader: take time out of your busy day for your loved ones!
The last time I fished with Grandpa was on his 62nd birthday. I remember
the day pretty well. Grandpa was pretty busy for some reason but we headed to the
Naselle River off of South Valley Road to get a few quick casts in. What I remember
most about that day was walking down to the river with him and asking him how old
he was. He told me he was 62 and I remember thinking that 62 was REALLY OLD and that
he would die soon. My eyes welled up with tears with the thought. I managed to get
the tears dried up before they fell so he didn’t see. I spent the rest of that fishing
trip appreciating EVERY little thing about him (by the way, this was the ONLY trip
together that we didn’t catch anything).
Follow the leader: make people laugh!
Grandpa was a prankster. If you didn’t know this, you didn’t know Grandpa!
Every time I visited he had a new trick up his sleeve. Even in his 80’s! The last
prank he played on me was his exploding pen cap. I think over the course of 2 years
I actually fell for that prank twice.
Follow the leader: confirm those answers?
When Grandpa would ask a question and someone would reply he would always
follow up a reply with a “Huh?” I thought that was pretty funny because I knew he
heard the reply but he still always said “Huh?”. I remember listening to Grandma replying
to Grandpa, Grandpa then saying “Huh?” and then Grandma replying louder, firmer and
a bit annoyed. I always smiled to myself when I heard that word “Huh?”, it was a funny
habit of his.
Follow the leader: Give!
Grandpa was so giving. With every visit I ended up with some sort of odd,
hand-me-down gift that meant a lot. Grandpa had a way of showing you all his cool
things throughout the house and shop and waiting for your eyes to sparkle about one
of those things. That THING usually was gifted to you by the end of your visit. Over
the years I obtained some pretty special gifts: stuffed baby alligator, pocket electronic
golf game, Skil-Saw, fishing lures, wood pens.
Thank you for your love and leadership Grandpa. I respect and honor your life and
am committed to providing the leadership to my family and friends as you have done
for yours.
I
noticed today that C# 4.0 
![clip_image002[4]](http://www1.qainsight.net:8080/content/binary/WindowsLiveWriter/FollowtheLeader_1170A/clip_image002%5B4%5D.jpg)