She almost left us on her birthday…Maw-Maw loved a good ending. My grandmother went to be with Jesus this morning. Crazy, but I found out on Facebook from my cousins and my aunt’s post about it. Can I at least get a text? 🙂 They were transporting her from Houston to Dallas when she gave her last breath. I am sad for me, but overjoyed for her. She was ready to go home. Her body was giving out on her and she wasn’t able to do what her mind wanted her to do.
My only regret is that she never met or held Callen. She knew he was here and that I would be mom, but I wish she had seen me with him. She would have liked to see that motherly side. She will be watching, just from an aerial view. As we were tossing and turning about the next steps, we found a box in her bedroom that had the contents of some things she ordered in a catalog. My grandmother loves to shop in catalogs and random things get sent to her home from places that we never heard of. She loved to shop: clothes, buttons, butter pats, porcelain shoes, light houses, dolls, Native American artifacts, puzzles, needlework…randomness galore. I think she just loved to keep the economy going. Many businesses are closing as I type because they lost their best customer. Hobbies were her thing and she supported them to the full. I digress….in the box that was on her bed we found two Christmas ornaments that she purchased on December 6th. The ornaments included a poem that was titled “Don’t Cry for me because I am spending Christmas with Jesus this year.” The entire poem went on to tell about the joy of living a good life and to live to the fullest knowing Jesus is with her. My Maw Maw even predicted her death…Maw Maw, can you warn a sister???
It makes her passing easier. It is also easier because she lived her life to the fullest. She knew Jesus deeply and left her legacy of faith. She was my biggest prayer warrior and spent the last year getting it right with God. I can only be jealous that she is with Him enjoying the splendor of Heaven. So thankful for a great God that planned a home for us in advance. So thankful that He conquered death and victory is in Him. Can’t fathom a life that is meaningless or ends by rotting in the ground. Heaven is real and I am thankful that she is there with Him.
If I know Maw Maw she is telling Jesus her preferences right now. She is greeting her parents and loved ones that passed, she is taking lots of pictures (she loved to take pics-in fact she went to Hawaii twenty five years in a row and she would bring back ten rolls of film each time) Really Maw Maw?
Can’t say enough about the lady that molded my life. I am the follower of Christ because I saw her example. I witnessed her praying and studying His word. I stood in awe at her generosity of funding churches, jobs and all kinds of missions. She loved to shop, but she loved to give more. She gave generously because money was just an object. She had lots of it, but she enjoyed giving it away. We all benefitted from her generous heart.
It feels good to type these memories as I am very blessed. I had her for thirty three years of my life. Many don’t. She was healthy and loving and wise for most of those years. I can’t complain or be sad because she was there for it all. She adored her family and I promise to share her legacy with Callen. I promise to continue telling of God’s great love for us. She was an avid Church of Christ member and was in the doors (in her healthier days) whenever it was unlocked. Maw Maw wasn’t perfect. She had an attitude and told it like it is, she was a bit bossy at times and always quick to call you out; but she was loving and real and you knew she wasn’t about talking behind your back.
I look forward to her protecting my family and seeing all the ways she makes herself present in the next few years. I look forward to feeling her presence as my angel. She loved me to the moon and back and I am better for it.
Way to go, Maw-Maw. “Well done good and faithful servant.”
The good news is: “Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.” ~ C.S. Lewis
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:17-18
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
John 14:1-2
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