Honoring David

On Sunday night, April 26, Ryan received a very unexpected phone call from Jan letting him know that David had passed away. This was a huge shock to us all. Ryan and David were very close to one another; they had a great relationship and talked almost daily. He is going to be missed big time. 

I don't even know how to put into words all the emotions we've been feeling since then. Instead, I'm going to put some of my favorite pictures with David throughout the years.

With Ryan on their trip to Europe with Grandmama in 1995.

Holding Lily in the hospital and holding Mia in the hospital.

Visiting with us in Feb, 2009.

Visiting with us in Aug, 2009.

With Ryan and Grandpa Hooks at Grandpa Hooks' 80th birthday, Jan 2011.

In Chicago, June of 2015.

On our Alaskan cruise in June 2017.

Teaching the girls to fish in 2019.

With Mia in 2023.

Ryan and David visited Nashville together in 2024 to see the Milk Carton Kids in concert. They got to meet Kenneth Pattengale beforehand and get an autographed guitar from him!

They went back in 2025 to see Ringo Starr and friends!

We enjoyed visiting over Christmas 2025. We're always happy to go out on the boat. I think this is David's happy place.

Lily and friends went down for Spring Break in March 2026. Needless to say, Grandpops was more than happy to be their captain on the boat.

We are so thankful for many years of wonderful memories!

The memorial service for David was held in Clearwater on Friday, May 29. It was a lovely service which did a great job of painting a full picture of this amazing man. Ryan did a fantastic job with his eulogy; David would have been so proud of him. There was a wonderful reception afterwards at the Belleair Country Club. It was great to talk with so many people and hear their stories of great times with David. There were quite a bit of laughs too with these memories. We really appreciated that my parents, Brian Henderson, and Jeff Smith came down too in support of our family. On Saturday morning, the family gathered at the beach house to place his ashes in the water.

We're working on finding our new normal without David. It's not easy, but we're relying on the Lord to provide the strength we need.