Wayne Watson Gill

Garrett Bridges 148w

Brice Bridges

I remember Uncle Wayne would always let me listen to his mosquito noise repellent machine, he always had it in his pocket at family gatherings and would let me hear it whenever I asked. He gave it to me eventually, and I still have it in a box at home, just need to replace the batteries whenever I want to hear it and remember.

Josslyn Fahrni 149w

Convictions

The best part of my Grandpa Wayne were his convictions. He would read about some theory and be convinced that it was true and then he would apply that theory to his life. Grandpa would wholeheartedly put his effort into whatever new thing he learned about. For example, he read somewhere that wearing glasses actually weakened your vision and made you more dependent on glasses. If you did not wear your glasses the muscles in your eyes would strengthen and your vision would improve. This led him to stop wearing his glasses and, as you can imagine, catastrophe. I vividly remember being at my Aunt's house for a holiday, probably Christmas, we always spent Christmas day at their house, and my Grandpa had decided that he wasn't going to wear his glasses that day. I have no idea if he was near sighted or far sighted… looking back, I would guess he was both. I'm pretty sure he wore bifocals. Anyway, he had decided not to wear his glasses. My Aunt always kept the sliding glass door to the backyard open with the screen door closed to let in the cool winter air but not bugs. We were all just having a great time when, all of a sudden, Grandpa walks straight into the screen door. All of the grandkids laughed, my mom looked mortified, and Grandpa just looked confused, like "what did I just run into?" I remember my mom reminding him to wear his glasses and Grandpa telling her that he was actively choosing not to wear them. I have no idea what my mom was thinking as he was telling her this, only that I'm sure she was flabbergasted. So, the day goes on when, unexpectedly, I watch as Grandpa's foot rips straight through the screen door. All the grandkids burst out laughing once again and my mom is just shaking her head and apologizing profusely to my Aunt, who graciously tells everyone not to worry about it. She has my Uncle remove the screen door and close the sliding glass door. At this point, I can tell my mom is just fed up with my Grandpa and his antics and asks him to put his glasses on… again. And again, my Grandpa tells her that he will not be doing that because he's strengthening his eyeballs. I can hear the restraint in my mom's voice as she tries to convince him to put his glasses back on, but he good-naturedly refuses. The festivities continued, until, you guessed it, WHAM, Grandpa walked straight into the sliding glass door. I just remember him looking so confused as to why someone would have put this glass door in his way. As I sit here writing this, I can’t help but smile. My memories of my Grandpa are full of stories like this and of times my Grandpa made me smile. I love him so much and miss him every day.

Family First

Grandpa Wayne always put family first. Helping with grandkids or another family member; he valued us. Everyone knows he was always good for a story or lesson about life. He taught us how to love nature and to be observant. Once he shared why he loved the sunset - something about having a connection to the color's numbers and a shaman. Every beautiful sunset I see is a reminder of Grandpa. Another time, we were sitting in a McDonalds, and he had me study traffic patterns because I needed to be a more observant driver. Grandpa was good at making a lesson happen at the most random times. When I think about his RV/motorhome or the marathons he ran, I wish he could see how much the world has changed and how neat of a life he lived. From being a goal-setter to following the eagles in the sky, he was a wise elder, and I wish there was more time to learn from him. When I think of Grandpa Wayne, I think of... backpacking, fly fishing, left vs. right brain, coffee, cookies, fast food (McDonald's and Taco Bell), casinos, mountains, wildlife, church, farmer's markets, oranges, ranch work, blue yes, white white white hair with a perfect part, blue plaid shirts, electric razor, wooden animal figures, self-help/care books, minimalist, sunsets and sunrises, yellow Dial bar soap, toothpicks, diaries, Navy cook, teacher, traveling via RV or camper shell, Levi's, running and walking the hills, teaching kids how to swing, the squeal of his hearing aids, Sears, never afraid of hard work, and never afraid to share knowledge. - Katie Minto (Dan's Daughter)

Mikaela Fahrni 149w

His Love of Running

One of the most memorable things for me about my Grandpa Wayne was his love for running. He used to come over to the house and race me and my sister. I really thought it would be easy to beat an old man, but he kicked my butt more than once. I remember the day I finally beat him in our race down the street and he just smiled and laughed, happy to see his granddaughter finally accomplish something she had been working toward for years. In middle school, I joined the track and field team and was so excited for my Grandpa to come see one of my races, because I wanted to share in his love for the sport. I remember running my very last middle school race in honor of him after he passed. It was hard to find joy that day, but I knew he was still rooting for me, and that was all I needed to run my absolute hardest to take the gold, and take the gold we did.