On Tuesday November 2 I lost a man I had cared about and loved since we were teenagers. Then lost touch. And 32 years later Don came back into my life and we married.
We were married 26 years. The last 6 years have been difficult ones because of Don’s health and caregiving.
But hopefully soon – which I hold onto – the day he is resurrected. And will be in perfect health, able to once again enjoy life and be ever grateful to Jehovah for the greatest gift His Son gave – that will make that possible.
Survived by –
Diana Stamm and family in California
Melanie Sens and husband Roy Sens and family in Ocean City, Maryland
2 thoughts on “David Donald Newlin”
On Tuesday, November 2nd, we said goodbye to an amazing gentleman that I had the privilege to call Grandpa. In 1963, Grandpa (17) and Grandma (15) met at the Milwaukee convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They clicked and became pen pals between Miami and Winnipeg, but sadly lost touch over the years. Fast forward 32 years later, Grandpa meets a couple from Winnipeg on a plane to Dallas, thinks of the young lady he used to write letters too, ends up finding her SISTERS number in the phone book and gets connected with Grandma. It sounds like a fairytale when you say “it was like no time passed at all,” or “you don’t always get a chance to marry the first love of your life,” but on January 13, 1995 that’s exactly what happened with Grandma and Grandpa, they married the first loves of their lives.
Grandpa Don was my Southern Gentleman. He would take me out on “Grandpa-Granddaughter Dates” for ice cream and we would walk in the park by their place. He was always so soft and gentle with everyone he met, making someone smile, or telling a joke, but what never faded through the years was his love for Jehovah God. As Grandpa’s health was failing, he held firm to the promise God gives at Rev 21:4 “And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.” I can’t wait for the day when Grandpa wakes up again here on earth when “the former things have passed away,” handsome and healthy as ever. I see him running to Grandma, picking her up into his arms and spinning her around and around. I see him and I going for a walk around a garden like we used to when I was little. And I see him smiling and laughing with the whole family, sitting back and taking in all of our loud craziness.
For now though, he is safe in Jehovah’ God’s memory. We will miss him so much, but I thank Jehovah for this promised future we have every day, when we can be together again.
David Donald Newlin
March 31, 1945-November 2, 2021
Sharing in the grief and sorrow with my sister, Lynn, and family in the loss of her very loving husband and my brother-in-law, Don.