I wanted to share the program and eulogy for my dad for those of you who weren't there or who wanted to see it again. The funeral was beautiful and heartbreaking. We are so grateful to those who were able to attend. The eulogy was given by his daughters, Heather and Megan (me). Below you'll see how we split it when we spoke. After the eulogy is his program. Thanks for taking the time to read more about the man we care so deeply about.
Heather: Our brothers and husbands are holding their breath right now, rightfully so, expecting us to break into uncontrollable sobs. That’s why there’s two of us up here. We are going to do our best to keep it together for our Dad.
Heather: Geoff Lighten was born in Chelmsford England June 2, 1946 to Nell and Dick Lighten. He grew up in Grays England with his older brother Rob, younger sister Margie and baby brother Andy. He attended Palmer’s endowed school for boys and raced pigeons with all his elderly neighbors.
Heather: Grandpa Lighten was just like our dad...the kind that all your friends wished was theirs. When Dick Lighten came home all the kids in the neighborhood would come over to play cricket. Geoff’s parents were very kind and loving, he had a storybook childhood.
Megan: At the age of 15 he became interested in religion when Jehovahs witnesses came to the door. Mormon missionaries came soon after and he investigated both. He said on Wednesday’s he was a jehovah’s witness and on Friday’s he was a mormon . He was later baptized with his younger brother Andy.
Megan: Elder Shumway, a missionary serving in dad’s area, casually mentioned to our dad that he could come live with his family in the states. From that moment our dad began to save his money. He said he was tempted twice to withdraw his savings, once for a dog the other for a motorbike. Having saved enough money at 17, Geoff traveled to the US and lived with the Shumways in American Fork, Utah. He later said that he was probably invited for only a few weeks, but ended up staying a few years, before and after his 30 month mission to France. We are so grateful to our Grandma Shumway, as she became known and who is here today and that she took our Daddy in. You may notice on the cover of the program a handwritten scripture John 14:27 “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Grandpa Dick Lighten gave this to our dad as he boarded a huge ship to travel to the states when he was just 17 years old. This note has been laminated and on display in our dad’s office.
Heather: Geoff attended and graduated from BYU with a BA degree in communications, there he met and married Jill Bullock his eternal sweetheart on August 22, 1969. He worked at Johnson and Johnson for thirty years and in these past few years he’s worked in real estate. He loved the group of people he worked with.
Heather: Geoff and Jill lived in many places together, but the majority of their time spent in Colorado, California and Utah. They had seven children, who we will introduce with one of many songs arranged by our father. “We are the Lighten’s we have lots of fun, we are the daughters, we are the sons. Amy Rich and Dan are the oldest ones. Matt Heather and Trevor come next. Then comes our Megan dear. She is a bum. She is the smallest one” We are like our dad. Our lack of musical talent does not stop us from sharing. Dad was a proud grandfather to 35. 14 grandsons and 21 granddaughters.
Megan: Dad served in the church throughout his life. He had many callings but among his favorite were Gospel Doctrine teacher and Bishop. He loved the gospel and had a strong testimony that he wouldn’t hesitate to share. All four of his sons served a mission and his second oldest grandchild is currently serving in Georgia.
Megan: We were our dad’s number one priority. I think he looked forward to playing with us as much as we looked forward to playing with him. He was never too busy to listen to us or too tired to play a game of deck soccer. We all have many memories of little games he made up, most of which included a wager of some sort.
Heather: Our dad loved to embarrass us. He would drop us off at highschool, wait for us to get about 15 feet from the car, then he would start honking the horn, calling our names, and yelling “Heather, Matt, Trevor, I LOVE YOU” as loud as he could. We would stand together united, and pretend he was somebody else’s dad.
Heather: One winter night Matt and I and our dates were having a romantic dinner for a school dance. Our mom had decorated it lovely, the christmas lights were the only lights in the room, she made a beautiful dinner and dad was on the deck grilling steaks. Out of nowhere, in the darkness of the night, through the window we saw my Dad, shirtless, in the snow, staring in at us with a blank look on his face for several minutes, purely for the sake of embarassing us on our dates. Well played dad.
Megan: In these last few years some people have thought he looked like Elder Scott, even confusing the two. Recently someone teased him and asked, “What will your next conference talk be about?” His response? Revenge.
Megan: My dad told me many times that when I was first born I had a look on my face, almost like a look of shock. He teased that I was thinking “Oh no, I got this guy as my dad??” But I know as a tiny baby I just realized I was the luckiest girl in the world. From his example of a father and husband we had the highest expectations for our own.
Megan: These last five weeks of his life have passed very quickly. Two months ago he was healthy and walking around New York City, 8 miles a day. In November our mom noticed he was starting to turn yellow. He received a cat scan which revealed a mass on his pancreas. We were told that it was pancreatic cancer and the best chance for a few more years was to remove the tumor. He had a whipple procedure on Friday December 13th. Many complications followed this surgery including blood clots and internal bleeding. Throughout that next week we had a lot of reasons to hope. Friday Dec 20 and Sat Dec 21 things got very scary. They were unable to stop his bleeding and he underwent 4 surgeries in two days. Late Saturday night we knew there was a good chance we could lose him. My mother and all of his children were with my dad in his final hours. That room early Sunday morning was filled with immense grief and sorrow. But it was also filled with immeasurable adoration and love for our dad. There is no doubt of his love for any of us, nor doubt in our love for him.
Heather:Five weeks was not enough, and we’ll admit we have felt it unfair and that we were cheated. But the grief and sadness that have been felt is a testament of our father’s legacy and love for him. Our brother Dan said perfectly that day, we lost our favorite person. I cling to the knowledge that we will see him again and get that big bear hug we already miss.
The funeral was designed by our very talented cousin, Hayley Castle.
This is the cover and back
I have a lot I want to share about my dad which I'll be doing here. Love him and miss him everyday.
