The Love That Builds a FamilyA Tribute to Bud Campbell

Family matters a lot to the Campbells, and more than ever on a day like today. I have the honor of speaking words of love on behalf of a family whom I love very deeply. Our hearts ache at the loss of our beloved Bud. But the sadness is mixed with a strange swirl of wonderful memories of Grandpa.

It's amazing how far back our memories can take us. I can dimly remember early Saturday mornings at the hardware store. It was summertime and Grandma and Grandpa had come up the most treacherous driveway in the world to a patch of land where mom and dad were building our house. After getting the day's work ready, just Grandpa and I would go off to the hardware store to fetch some tools and supplies to finish some important job. I remember he took the time to patiently teach me the difference between a framing hammer and a ball peen hammer, a wood saw and a hack saw. The funny thing is, I probably knew more about that stuff then than I do now. But in those early days, in those dim memories, I am watching my dad and his dad working together to build us a home. I don't exactly remember the first time I heard it, but no doubt it was spoken many times at that site:

“If a job is first begun,
Do not leave it ‘till it’s done.
If a job is big or small,
Do it well or not at all.”

Grandpa's favorite saying has been firmly etched into my mind, and in so many ways, it captures the heart of the man whose life we celebrate, and whose loss we mourn. Grandpa wasn't a man who did things halfway, whether it was as trivial as mowing the lawn or as important as running up a column of figures in his sons' account ledgers. Heck, he didn't even go halfway piling strawberries on a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

And he didn't go halfway with our family, either. Along with grandma, he raised two capable, loving, and successful sons. He never let them get away with second best either, and I know he was proud of them, and of their families and children, and their children too.

“If a job is first begun,
Do not leave it ‘till it’s done.
If a job is big or small,
Do it well or not at all.”

That's how Grandpa lived his life, and that's the legacy he leaves us. I look out on a family who has never, ever, loved halfway. I've said it before, and I'll say it again--so many people in today's world do not enjoy the strong, close family that we enjoy. This was something passed on to Grandpa by his family, encouraged and nurtured by grandma, and passed on now to us. I am so proud to be a member of this family, and so proud to have had Bud as my grandpa.

Grandpa's work here on earth is now done. He did it very well, and now he rests, whole and strong, in the arms of His Savior, who has wiped away his every tear. We love you, Grandpa, and we'll miss you. See you upstairs when our work is done.