Douglas Lloyd Skifton

Our sweet Douglas Skifton has passed away.

When it comes to in-laws I feel like I won the lottery,

and this sweet man always treated me as one of his own.

He and Richard spoke to each other on the phone nearly every day.

In fact, Richard was the last person he called the night before he died.

Richard cherished his father's advice like a great treasure.

He idolizes and imitates him in a wonderful way.

Douglas lived in Minnesota as a little boy.

He was an only child.

He was deeply loved by his parents.

Just look at how his mother looked at him in this picture!

They signed him up for a military school called Kemper.

(Remember our families recent visit there ---> here) 

Shortly after he started Kemper,

his father died of a heart attack.

Douglas remembered the night before his father died,

he was home visiting from school,

and his father came in and kissed him on the forehead before bed.

He never forgot that because Norwegians didn't often show affection in that way.

Several months later, his mother also passed from breast cancer.

That left a young 14-year-old boy to be raised by the state of Minnesota in a military school.

Life eventually brought him to Vegas.

He met and married Jackie,

and they shared a beautiful, prosperous life with five children.

What a mustache!

She's a lucky lady.

He was a hilarious person.

Truly he knew about the timing of joke 

and had an understated sarcasm that could really make people laugh.

He was educated and knew just about anything about anything.

When you had the privilege of speaking to him, he could make you feel as if you were the most important person in his life at that moment.

He lived the principle that you have two ears and one mouth.

So he listened much more than he spoke.

And when he did talk to you, it was with great purpose and focus.

He gave life changing advice.

You knew it was advice that he gained for himself through life experiences.

He loved his family more than anything else.

He knew every Skifton on the planet and how he was related to them.

Not many people come close to his level of being able to forgive.

Or his level of being able to love.

He encouraged his children in all their pursuits.

And due to this parental support, they have all reached great accomplishments in their lives.

When you look at this man, who came to Vegas completely void of family,

he has built quite a miraculous posterity.

Every grandchild meant something special to him.

And he gave them the kind of love and life that he had worked so hard to build for his family.

He wanted all their names to be Norwegian because his ancestry was so equally valuable to him.

We gave him a Britta. And her name means so much to us.

"Celestial"

Our sweet Cora wasn't able to ever meet this mountain of a man. 

You can be sure that she will know about him so completely as though she had.

He was so quick to give a hug,

so quick to give a compliment,

and amazing at giving gifts!

He could get you things that you never knew you would needed or would love so much!

Pallbearers

(with a couple extra "honoraries")

The day that we gave our last good-byes to him,

was truly humbling.

I looked around me to see the miraculous effect he still has on so many.

He left a great posterity.

While we all miss him with all our hearts and souls,

we can't help but also experience a great bursting of joy 

at the thought of him seeing his parents again,

after so many decades apart.

I'm sure he cried like a 14 year-old boy at their reunion.

He was a pioneer convert to the church that brought a great many of his ancestors to the temple.

They surely gave him quite a welcome on the other side of the veil.

I hope he smiles down on us brightly,

and we feel so much immense gratitude for his life and influence.

It's hard to know what to say.

This hardly does him justice.

Going to Vegas for the funeral was so difficult 

because you still expected to see him coming around a corner.

You wanted him to ask you out to lunch, or a quick trip to Sam's club.

You wanted to make him his favorite (but weird) macaroni salad, 

with mushy peas and velveeta cheese.

You wanted to smell that spicy cologne that signaled he was ready to go out on the town,

in his over-sized black sweater and suspenders.

You wanted to bump into him at the column 

where he always stood by the kitchen when you went to the fridge.

You wanted him to randomly spray your hands with bleach water as you washed them at the sink, 

just to help you stay really, really clean.

You wanted to talk to him in the cool breeze of evening on the back porch.

You wanted to hear him tell you how much he loved you, 

just once more,

even though he said it all the time.

He gave us such great reasons to miss him.

And that is strangely comforting.

Our trip to Vegas, while despondent in nature,

was also filled with wonderful bonding experiences

as those of us left behind have a newly felt level of importance 

in our relationships with each other.

Cora finally was able to meet her sweetest Grandma.

They've heard so much about each other,

they were so happy to finally meet!

And she was introduced to Russell as well.

...

hopefully their relationship will get stronger over time.

I regrettably taught Grant to play Monopoly deal,

which adds him to the list of kindergartners who can beat me at that game.

Sweet Aunt Michelle is always the center of playtime!

Scott and Julie lifted our spirits with their sweet family visit.

Cora always has a question, and politely raises her hand.

Noah and Cora

(almost a rhyme)

Millenial cousin playtime.

We went swimming and I happened to take a picture of Parker jumping into the pool,

and it looks like he can WALK ON WATER!

And the greatest memorial of all was eating at Douglas' favorite restaurant

MACAYO'S!

The waiter that usually serves us was sincerely sad that Douglas was gone.

That tells you a lot about a man.

Christian is like a kid magnet.

I hope he has dozens of his own.
Then Great Aunt Ashley can wrestle with them,

hype them up on sugar,

and abruptly leave before bedtime!

haha... (evil laugh)

Payback is coming Christian.

Payback is coming... 

To add insult to injury,

we rushed to pack and load up into the car to get to Vegas as soon as we heard the news about Douglas.

As we barely merged onto the interstate by our home in Idaho,

we feel a rumbling...

As Richard searched for a place to pull over,

the rumbling turned into an explosive blowout!

Our tire not only lost its tread,

but it took the back bumper and

the entire fuel tank out with it!

We sat dumbfounded on the side of the road,

until we finally came to long enough to remember that we luckily have two vans.

We got a ride back to our house where we loaded our old Mazda MPV,

and hit the road again.

We love our family.

Every one,

every personality,

every talent,

every hobby 

every smile.

I don't know what the Skiftons will do without Douglas,

he was the head of the family.

We will still look to him, always.

DOUGLAS LLOYD SKIFTON

November 22, 1947 - May 2, 2018

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