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| A picture of Grandma on my wedding day. She had just put her sapphire ring on me for "something borrowed and blue" |
I will always think of Grandma as full of joy and adventure.
Whatever living there was to be done, she did it. I have to believe she is the kind of woman, who, on her death bed, would turn around to the life in the shrinking distance and say-- "I did it good. I got the marrow out of the bones."
I also think of Grandma as the ultimate lady. Perhaps it was the lace gloves she wore to the wedding "because Andrew likes them" or the little spritz of perfume she offered me as a grade-school girl that gives me this impression of her. Surely others besides myself saw this charm waft into their own encounters with her.
A few years ago, we were driving through a more rural part of Maryland on the way to David and Lauren's reception and Grandma was talking about the changing leaves in October with such pride and then pointed out a little farm she said she called "my farm" for a reason unknown to me. I'd like to think that-- today-- she is walking on heaven's version of that farm, hand-in-hand with The Lord under the most magnificent autumn foliage we earth-ridden can imagine.
She leaves 6 wonderful children, 16 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren (and counting!) to follow her example of trusting and loving The Lord in every venture.
I am so glad we took Henry to meet her last year and sorry that Amos never got the chance. But a little piece of her is in both of them and I am hoping it is her sense of optimism and good humor.
A big thank you to the cousins and my mom, but especially, to my aunts and uncles, for taking such good care of her these last few years. If I lived closer, I would have loved to have a turn.
My heart hurts today for me, but it soars for her in the relief and peace she has beginning today, October 8, 2014.
