From a granddaughter

Hi Grandpa, I wrote this and sent it along to Angola with Auntie Sharon for you and Grandma,

“For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust,  Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from before my birth. You are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you. I have been as a portent to many but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise and with your glory all the day.”…this is the word of the Lord (Psalm 71)

“Psalm 71 is one of my Grandpa Foster’s very favorite psalms” I said to a friend.

“Well that’s because it’s an old person’s psalm…” they teased…

She did not know my Grandpa Foster.

Grandpa Foster was floating in Baden Lake, NC with water noodle a few years ago! And water-tube-skiing behind a motor boat — teaching me to plant pansies in his front yard, too!

“Why is Grandpa trudging around, wearing his rubber wading-boots, knee high in the landscaping mud, Grandma?” I asked.
“Oh, he’s been out there for hours rescuing our backyard from run-off erosion by prying up and moving all of those giant boulders with a shovel.” Grandma answered.
“That’s nice.” I said, in reply.
And then Grandpa joined us for tea and raspberry thumbprints.

Grandpa, always, did love a good raspberry thumbprint and a butter tart, too!

When something tickled Grandpa, his broad chest would bounce about with this soulful laughter. Strong bursts of joy whisped, happily, through his bright and shining smile. He smiled at most everything, however simple. Even when he thought no one was watching, when he manged to extract an entire Brazil nut from its tricky shell and casing, a delightful grin of victory would form on Grandpa’s lips. Perhaps Grandpa’s utter delight over this world’s simple gifts reflects one truth about this fine man’s character: this bottomless faith of a humble servant to the Lord, God Almighty.

Near the end of his earthly life, one anonymous believer said this: “My stock of material goods isn’t great. But I have a fortune in friendship, courage, self-assurance and honest appraisal of my own abilities. Above all, I have gained the greatest thing according to an, the Love and understanding of a gracious God.” (Wilson, 258) Grandpa said that “the greatest call [was] the call to serve the Lord…” (Lutz) And if there is testimony to one earthly man’s humbly, happily and thoroughly lived service to the Lord Jesus Christ, it’s Grandpa Robert Livingston Foster’s.

With love, Jasper Naomi Duplantis