Our Sweet Henry

Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to post this picture of the nicest man you will ever meet. He moved into our complex in July of 2008. I remember the first day he came to see the apt., he was 88 years old, had a Lithuanian accent and full of joy. I showed him where the town home was that he was interested in, but could not show him inside since someone was living there, so he brought the pleasure on himself of walking up to the door and knocking on it to ask if he could see it. I remember laughing so hard about it. Ever since he moved in he has become a second grandfather to everyone that works here. He visited us almost every day here in the office bringing smiles to our faces. He always liked to make sure that the maintenance guys were taking good care of Kim and I. He worked for NASA as an engineer. He helped design the first spaceship that went to the moon. We loved hearing all of his stories of world war II, he saw the concentration camps and had to flee his town when it was overtaken by the Russians. He was such a smart man, always coming up with tricks to save on energy. He would go buy broken things all the time and fix them. At 90 years old he still skied. He drove a 10 seater huge green minivan that was the brand Savana, which he liked to joke with me about. He was in the Olympics for ski racing in 2003. He was completely capable and always kept busy, I know this is why he has lived such a long life. The sad thing is, his whole family was killed in World War II, so he has no one. He was never married and has no kids, so we became his family. On Christmas Wren and I went to say hi to him and take him a little gift, he was all dressed up in a suit, and had just gone to dinner by himself, it was heartbreaking, yet he was always SO happy. He had been going through chemotherapy because over labor day last year they found out that he had stomach cancer. He was so positive throughout all of it, saying how the chemo didn't even affect him. Our maintenance guy Victor walked over to his apt. to say hi today, and found him on the ground unconscious and barely breathing. We called the paramedics and they came and took him. It wasn't an hour later from when he got there that he passed away. He died at 2:20 today. He had walked into our office last night to say hi, but of course I was on the phone and didn't get off which is one of my biggest regrets. I would do anything just to be able to talk to him one more time and tell him how much he meant to me and all of us here. I am so so sad, words cannot even explain how much I have cried, it's hard so sit in this office knowing I will never see his smiling face again. He does not have any family and we do not really know what to do, we want to be able to give him a nice funeral service but don't think we will be allowed to since we are not his beneficiaries, the more research we have done, we do not think that he even has a living will. I just keep having this thought of who is going to remember him? He doesn't have kids, he doesn’t have grandkids, how will his memory live on? He had such an incredible life, so many adventures and stories and who will continue to tell them? But then I just have to remember that he had us, and for him I think that was enough. That is why I am sharing part of his life with you. We would like to put together something in memory of him because he so deserves it, once we can plan it I would love for every one of you to come so he can have people there to hear about what a wonderful person and friend he was to us. I learned from him that no matter who you are or what situation you are placed in, that we can always stay positive, and that even as you get old, stay doing what you love. And to share what you have, he donated so much to charities. I also learned that when you have a feeling, go with it, I had feelings yesterday to just stop by and see him and I didn't. I also learned to visit the people we love most often, we get so busy doing things that don't even matter, and push seeing grandparents and family to "next week". Thank you for listening to me, and I will keep you posted. Feel free to pass this along to anyone and everyone; I want people to hear about what an amazing man he was! We love you and will always remember you Henry!

A ski race that he won in 1999 when he was almost 80 years old, look how happy he was! Can you believe he is 80 years old in this picture? He was so proud of his sking accomplishments and you can see it in this picture. He loved to tell us about it and we loved to hear it.

A little "in memory of Henry Kristaponis" that I set up for him in our office. I'm really hoping we will be able to have a funeral for him!