'A smile like Santa Claus'

e tradesman for 25 years. He worked with his friend, Scott Tardy, in the contracting business for several years. He was most recently working at J&P Transport in Indiana, moving campers around, said his son, Scott.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Scott had traveled from his home in Florida to Indiana to see his grandmother, Mildred Burmingham, who had been ill. Both he and his father had continued on to Grand Haven, where they met with Scott’s sisters, Missy Brown and Kayla Burmingham, at the Tip-A-Few Tavern. The family had not been together for a long time.

“It was one of those days I will never forget,” Scott said.

They laughed and told stories, and planned to make the reunion an annual event — one that will go on without his father, Scott vowed.

Things had not always been that good in the Burmingham family — but out of the bad did come a lot of good, Bytwerk said.

To read more of this story, see today’s print or e-edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.