Dear Grandpa Bingham,

Even though you are not my real grandpa (a fact that I don't usually recognize, but considering my marital status, it is important) you are the only grandpa I have ever known. I feel that I am writing this to you several years late, because you have truly been gone from us that long. I should be sad, and I should mourn your passing, and I should cry a little bit more than I have.

But I can't. And it's not because I didn't love you. I did. I loved you a lot. It's because I can't be sad for you when I know that you can finally see, hear, and remember for the first time in a long time. I am happy when I think of you young and fit, like your pictures in Joe's genealogy book, going around with Weldon and Sprig and Bish and all your other brothers. I am happy when I think of you finally seeing your first wife, Alice, again, and your sisters, and your mom and dad. There was a great Bingham bash, I am sure, when you went home, and I can't be sad about it. There are, however, a few things I would like to ask of you, now that you know who I am and where you are:

1. Please watch over Grandma. There are plenty of people here to do it right now, but no one can be there all the time, and I am sure she needs you.
2. Tell Weldon about Joe and my Miss Alice. Joe never got to know your favorite brother, except through stories you told on all those Malt-Shop outings Joe took you on. So it would be nice if you could pass on what you remember.
3. I hope you remember how much all of us Pete Jones girls loved you. As I said, even though we weren't biological, you were the only grandpa we knew. When I was little, I couldn't figure out why I wasn't a Bingham, and when my mom told me that you were not dad's dad, I was a little sad. We all miss you--not the you that laid in a bed for the last two years, but the you that kept sheep and swore in the corner and loved the movie Shane and the you that loved chocolate malts. We've been missing you for a while.

RAYMOND BINGHAM

Raymond Bingham 1913 ~ 2011 Raymond Bingham died early March 6, 2011 at the Legacy Village in Taylorsville, Utah. Ray was born on Indian Bench to Ashel Calvin Bingham & Grace Eudora Casper on August 16, 1913. He married Alice Runsted and they had five children, Lorna Rae (Rolf Petersen), Alice Ielene (Clyde Rydalch), Jack Raymond (Helen Fitz) and Robert (Suzie Green). Ray was a veteran of World War II and served most of the war in the South Pacific. His wife, Alice died in 1965 and he later married Dorothy Fern Jones (formally Warden) on July 16, 1970. Dorothy brought with her seven children, Sherry Ambrose (Rick), Krista Kanenwisher (Ken), Winston Jones (Leora Tingey), Jennell Colvalt (Norm), Jenniffer Walton (Don), Peter M. Jones (Suzanne Nicholes) and William Raymond Jones (Barbara Boyack). Ray and Fern have 44 grandchildren, 64 great-grand-children and seven great-great-grandchildren. Ray's surviving siblings are Loke, Dick and Acel Bingham. Ray's Alzheimer's decline took him back to Indian Bench. His last thoughts were of his boyhood years spent on Indian Bench with his brothers and sisters (8 boys & 3 girls) and the parents he adored. Ray taught us how to bear our burdens lightly. A family viewing will be held on Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 12 noon at Goff Mortuary, 8090 S. State St., Midvale, Utah. Graveside services will follow at the Bluffdale City Cemetery at 1:30 p.m. www.goffmortuary.com