Oh, my dear George, how I miss you! Today I'm especially weepy, as it would have been your 23rd birthday. I say 'would have been' because I don't believe birthdays have any relevance on your side of the veil. Your mortal body was here for 21 1/2 years. Your immortal soul is, well, immortal! How comforting it is to know that we will again be together as a family, that I'll be able to hug you, kiss that sweet face, gaze upon that cheesy grin! And as I once taught you, you'll be there to teach me.

How I appreciate Heavenly Father's tender mercies. I'd given up all hope of ever recovering your new camera, sent just 3  months before you left us, I found your original camera, but it was without a memory card. I was surprised to happen upon the new one last week. And it had a memory card! I'm sure that it didn't surprise you that it took me hours to find the right code, and then to figure out how to access any stored photos. I'd decided that it must be blank, but gave one more try. 590 images!!! Thank you, George! I stayed up late that night, as I couldn't move from the computer until I'd viewed every photo. Gotta love memory cards, as the photos started with your first companion and ended wtih your last Christmas, just 3 weeks before your mortal death. I wept both tears of sorrow and tears of gratitude as I poured over those images of my beloved first-born son. But I suspect that you already knew that. 

Your death has impacted many people, George. Especially your family. One thing of which I'm especially aware is that I focus even more on eternal goals, and on eternal consequences. Mortality is just a period for us to learn, experience, and grow. You are so very close... I often feel you near me, buddy, and take great comfort in that.

Love you!

Mom 

On Christmas Day, 2012, George and his companion, Elder Robinson, baked 318 cookies! It involved several hours and several trips next door, to neighbors Julie & Dave Bishop, for additional equipment and baking advice. The finished cookies were divvied among 30 plates, and delivered to families with whom they were working. While starting out, still trying to get a grip on the logistics of this trek, Bishop Hathaway and some of his children drove past. They stopped, learned of the 'great cookie delivery', and gathered the missionaries and cookies into their station wagon. The cookies were delivered. Many memories were made. And those memories are cherished by all. What a Merry Christmas they had!

We were interested in trying out the restaurant, and we were pleasantly surprised!!  It was fun to see the joy on George's face as the workers brought out this monsterous burrito!  We went back several times during that six week period!

When George was about 10, Uncle Bob and I had all the kids at Culver's for dinner.  We had a nice big corner booth, which the kids all loved.  I was busy taking orders for kids meals until I got to George.  He very carefully explained to me that he was too big for a kid's meal, and he needed to order from the regular menu.  I'm almost a man now Aunt Sandy, I need a regular meal.  Everything was very serious.  Then ice cream time came, and everyone had their coupon from their kids meal, everyone that is except George.  Then it was my turn to carefully explain to him that although he was almost a man now, he still only got a single scoop like everyone else.  The four little kids could let him get away with a different meal than they got, but they certainly weren't going to let him get away wioth a sundae while they were all getting a scoop! LOL!  He was trying so hard to be all grown up!

George never missed a service project. Being in KS, he had multiple opportunities to assist in clean-up following tornados and floods. This included clean-up after the Greensburg, KS tornado. As shown in photos, the town was leveled. George did much of his work from basements, removing debris. At one point, a beam fell. It hit George in the shoulder, and left a gash that required a visit to the paramedics. The gash left a scar. He loved that momento of his service in Greensburg! I guess it's a guy thing.....

George and John were both in middle school when we spent a year in Waukee, IA. Peter & I once had to drive down to KS for the day. We left as they left for school, but were just starting home when their school day ended. When I was sure the boys would be home, I called. John answered. The following conversation is burned in my brain.

Mom: "Hi Buddy! How are you both doing?"

John: "George was shot." At this point, we started talking over each other a bit, and my speech sped up significantly.

Mom: "WHAT?!?"

John: "He's still alive."

Mom: "WHAT HAPPENED!!!" By this point, I'm hyperventilating.

John: "Do you want to talk to the police office?"

Mom: "YES!"

I was picturing George being rushed to a hospital by an ambulance, sirens screaming, hooked up to an IV. As it turns out, George was standing there next to John and the police officer! As the boys and a friend were walking home from school, a couple of JD's were cruising with a pellet gun, taking pot shots at the younger kids. The friend was hit in the neck. Painful, but didn't break the skin. A pellet hit George's backpack. He was disappointed that it didn't even leave a mark, as evidence that he was actually in a drive-by shooting!

The kids knew that a police officer lived on their path home. As luck would have it, the cruiser was in the driveway and she was home. They stopped to tell her about the pellet gun and describe the car. An officer was at the house a few minutes later to officially take their statement. 

This was always one of George's favorite stories!

When George was 3 to 5, we lived in North Muskegon, MI. Until that move, I hadn't realized that Lake Michigan has a wet side and a dry side. WI is the dry side. MI is the wet side. And North Muskegon is right on the lake. 

Very near us was a small, somewhat protected channel that we enjoyed year-round. It was great for swimming in the summer, and beach play in the spring and fall. Winter, though, was the best! Lake Michigan's vast expanse never failed to put on an awesome display. As winter got underway, we'd watch the ice creep further and further out toward the horizon. The lake itself never froze solid, but it would reach the point that from the beach you could see only ice.

The real show was in late winter, as temperatures rose and storms hit, breaking up the ice field. The beach became virtually inaccessible, buried under drifts of snow and craggy chunks of ice blown to shore. The finale was craggy ice boulders all along the beach and many feet (30 or more) into the lake. We could see more broken ice heading toward the beach. Along the horizon, however, it was still a seemingly limitless expanse of ice.

We loved to watch the lake. And with George along, of course, we had to talk about it. His best observation (or at least my favorite) - "I see polar bears doing somersaults on the other side of the lake!"  He then turned to me, pointed a knowing finger at his forehead, and said, "You just have to use your imagination."

As a toddler, George loved to go for walks. And just like our lab must have something in his mouth, George had to have something in each hand. Autumn in MN was wonderful for this! So many pretty leaves, nuts, sticks, etc. Little George would toddle with one item in each hand. Upon coming across another 'pretty', he would lay his first items down to the new find, peruse them carefully, select two, and move happily on!

Geroge Peter Solie arrived, trailing clouds of glory, on 1 July 1991, We were living in LaGrange, IL - a Chicago suburb - in a vintage (ie character but not restored) 4th floor walkup. My mother, June Armfield, was so excited to welcome our first child - her 6th grandchild - that she made a white baby-appropriate uniform to care for little George and me. As it turned out, she came prepared for 2 weeks and left after 4 days because Peter was doing such a good job, she left that he was just trying to come up with chores for her! We had another two wonderful helpers - Janet & Eleanor - retired women who had lived in the building for 40 years. We were the tenants to have a baby. They placed chairs on each landing for me to rest on the way up (t'was a c-section). They left baked good at our door. And gave us enough quarters to get us through the first two months of laundry.

Everafter, George was drawn to Chicago.