Austin:
Randy, Dad, Poppi, Papino Laguino,
What I loved most about you was your strive and hunger for deep connection with people. You cared about getting to know me really and wholly, and always pursued my heart. Through every intimate conversation, you proved time and again that having a relationship with me was your greatest desire–your love of Jesus illustrating to me what a Godly man looks like.
I loved that you were continuously eager to improve yourself. Even in the end, you asked if there was anything I needed from you or any way you could be better for me. That humility and love is something I admire, and that hunger to be better is instilled in me.
I loved that I could be honest with you, and you never judged me. You loved me through every bad decision. You showed confidence and trust in me, and I could always count on you to be there for me when I needed you.
You taught me the meaning of hard work, the importance of seeing a job through to completion, and the value of being a man of my word. You lived out your faith in action and service!
Dad, thank you for caring for the people I cared for! The way you loved on my friends and wanted to connect with them made such an impact on all of us. Even the people who didn’t have a relationship with God could see Christ through you.
I loved that we always bonded through humor. That we relentlessly tried to make each other laugh. I am going to really miss hearing that laugh. I am going to miss everything about you dad… Especially, your insatiable disdain for cats.
At every stage of fatherhood I have these moments, a recollection of memories, where I get to learn from you and hear your voice. I am so grateful to have so many of those snapshots. They are a twofold blessing, one that shows me how loved by you I was and one that coaches me now as a father.
I love you, Dad.
Austino, Austino Laguino, Son
Molly:
Randy,
If I’m being honest with myself, I think my chief memories will always live there with you in the trenches at the end. Your years of praying for me coming to beautiful fruition as I saw Jesus more clearly and felt him more palpably than ever before. Naturally the closer I felt to Christ, the nearer I felt to you—I was speaking your language! And as the veil of heaven thinned, as your body grew smaller, your spirit amplified. The Lord spoke louder! Through your steadfast devotion, He assembled a renewed perspective in me. I began to understand how in his Heavenly logic, something so unfathomable and crushing to me didn’t even hold a candle to the eternal glory He was weaving together. And though His heart breaks with us while we weep, He just knows better. He sees it all through a wide angle lense. Our sorrow is fixed in one tiny corner of the frame, but the expanded view reveals the expansion of His Kingdom! His power is made perfect in our weakness—His grace all the more beautiful in our suffering. He’s looking at all the souls won for eternity because of this exact moment in our personal, earthly history.
Even in saying all that (and I really do believe it), I’ll admit that I’m mad. I was so not done loving you Poppi. Not done hearing you call me “Molly girl” and greeting me so tenderly. And not even close to done learning and growing with you.
Thank you, Randy. For calling the Lord into my life since the day we met. For loving me and seeking to know me. For seeing me as I am and creating the safest place for me in your heart and home. I’ll always think of you in your prized backyard, your charming oasis, and remember the refuge you were for me. I love you.
Your daughter-in-love and friend,
Molly