A Letter from Hannah

Philip was my big brother, my role model, my friend.

I grew up seeing families on tv with brothers and sisters that hated each other, always fighting, never wanting to spend time together, so I knew from an early age that Philip was special because I couldn’t relate to those shows at all. Philip LOVED the three of us girls. He played video games with us, played Pirates on the dirt piles outside when the neighbors’ houses were under construction, he never got mad about being asked to babysit, and he was always so loving and affectionate. He gave the best bear hugs, and those hugs usually led into tickle attacks which I pretended to hate but actually loved because it was a special moment I got to share with my big brother.  

Philip loved to have fun. He was always laughing, telling jokes, and pulling pranks, like when he followed me around during an Easter egg hunt and hid eggs in the places I already checked, and then went back and “discovered” them at the end when he showed us the ones we missed. Or when he woke up early on Christmas morning, when I still believed in Santa, and he took everything out of my stocking, replaced it with crumpled up black paper, and let me find it thinking I actually received a lump of coal. Though it was traumatizing at the time, I can now appreciate how genius and funny that was.

I never told Philip how much he inspired me to finish college. Both of our sisters were always straight A students, which is awesome for them, but Philip and I functioned a bit differently. His life motto during school was “C’s get degrees,” and he was living proof of that. I always looked up to him, saw how determined he was to finish what he started, and I carried that with me through graduation.

Philip always had big ideas. One of my favorite memories with him was several years ago when we were all back home in Washington for a bit and Philip wanted to take the three of us on a sister date with him. He told us each to pack a towel, swim suit, tooth brush, and a winter coat, and then he drove us over an hour into the middle of a forest….. Turns out that was all a trick to throw us off of what we were actually doing which was shooting his new shot gun. Classic Philip.

The last thing I talked to Philip about was a tech issue I was dealing with. No surprise there. But if I could have said one more thing to him I would want him to know how much I treasured our relationship. I loved every minute I got to spend with him, even the 5 minutes we had when he ran across the airport just to say hi right after his flight landed and right before mine took off.We are all completely devastated to lose you, Philip, but if there’s one thing our family does best, it’s love each other, and I know you would want us to trust that God has us all in His hands. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received from God.”  I love you so so much, big brother. See you later.

A Letter from Melissa

What I would’ve told him:

You were a great big brother. Wise, but also a goofball. A role model, but also a total trouble maker. A protector, but also you left me tied to the three in the front yard sometimes to help me, “learn how to break free from different knots.” Yeah. You shared with me your love for videogames, action movies, and Pokémon. All great things. You were always there for me, eager to help, whenever I needed anything. ESPECIALLY when it came to computers. Let’s be honest. You helped all of us SO much. and yeah, in your early days of dabbling in the world of tech, experimenting on the home computer, sure, you may or may not (definitely did) wipe the entire hard drive clean on accident (TWICE!), deleting many a cherished family photo, BUT that was obviously a worth sacrifice when you then grew into the computer genius we all knew and loved.

Philip, you were dearly, dearly loved. Your contagious wheeze/cry/bounce laugh whenever you found something truly hilarious was one of my favorites. I’m so grateful for this last Christmas we all spent together, sharing some of those ab-workout laughs over each other’s art work in that one board game you were initially hesitant to join. Stomach virus sharing aside, that was a great Christmas we spent together. Your famous bear hugs were in no short supply on that trip. No one would’ve imagined
in a million years that that would’ve been our very last Ganzfried kid huddle hug.

I already miss you, Philip. You’ve left a gaping hole in our family and in this community here. I know you’re currently standing in the very presence of our Creator, worshipping him with all of your being, and having your mind blown by His goodness more and more, with every passing second, and for that I rejoice. I rejoice too because of how much God used you in this world and what an incredible legacy you’ve left behind, as a loving husband, father, brother, son, and friend. You truly lived a life worthy of using the word you know I hate and refuse to say, but was pretty much your favorite word in the whole world, so I’ll use it just this once…..“EPIC.” There. Just the once.

I love you so much, brother. Thanks for being someone I always have and always will look up to.

Love,
Melissa