In the past couple of years our family has gone through several of our members having illness that required the rest of us helping or at least praying them through. My daughter had colitis twice year before last. Roy’s mom had hip replacement that went bad early last year. It took six months for her to be able to be back in her home to stay after the hip structure had to be removed because she was found to have an allergy to the metals after the first surgery was done. Just as she went home to stay, my mama went in the hospital. For the next six months she was in three different hospitals before coming home to stay under Hospice care before she went to her Heavenly Home to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus. My family, Daddy, brother and sister-in-law Joey and Lisa, and me have stayed with Daddy and clung together as we make this new adjustment we were not prepared for. Roy and our son and daughter have been there for us and supported in any way needed, also.

The past six months passed like a whirlwind. We just never really thought this was the last of the time we would have with Mama. Every moment we had to spend with her was special, and we were able to make some memories that will stay with us forever. One day after she didn’t converse as much as usual for her, we were all busy caring for Mama and we heard her say, “Oh, my goodness!” She had her hands lifted as in praise, and seemed to looking through the ceiling. We all rushed to her side, to see she had closed her eyes again with the same peaceful expression she usually wore. We looked at one another in awe, and wondered what she saw. It was obvious to us that she had been given a clear glimpse through the mist into her future permanent home. We wondered who she was allowed to see; Jesus, her parents, Rachel and my other little ones all waiting for us? Even as Mama stepped through that door about two or three weeks later we knew she was finally completely healed. That was what helped us through the pain of missing her so much after she was gone. She suffered no more.

She left with us gifts that will be with her family, as well as her friends, from now on. One of those things was her capacity for grace and mercy for others. She drew from a bottomless well of mercy and grace; the well called Jesus. Mama was also one of the most giving people I think I have ever known. I remember one of her “sayings” that she loved to remind us of when Joey and I were young was, “Sometimes, there is somewhere else God has for you to be besides in church on Sunday.” She went on to explain that she wasn’t discouraging attendance, or giving excuse to “skip” church for no good reason. Mama was simply saying that sometimes someone might need your care as a witness of God living in us, His love for that person, and what God was already doing in us. We would be loving others in His name in this way; and to get back to church when that need was over. Mama lived her testimony of God’s love alive in her. Ask anyone who knew her and they will tell you the same. I could go on endlessly and not say all I can of Mama’s witness of Jesus Christ alive and living in her in the way she lived and treated those around her. May I have that kind of witness of my Lord and Savior.

I will forever think of Mama when I enjoy a dip cone with my daughter. Every time I took her to a doctor’s appointment and we could in any way pass by a Dairy Queen we had to each get a chocolate dipped vanilla ice cream cone to enjoy. Thankfully my daughter and I had also started enjoying that tradition a couple of years ago. There is not a time that I enjoy a Humphrey Yogurt at Counter Culture that I don’t think of my son, who introduced me to them. That’s a tradition I will always attribute to him. I’ll enjoy that with him when I can, and treasure those memories. Roy and I made a lot of memories with our kids because we knew it was important to all of us. Memories have a whole new depth now.

Have a great weekend, and bee very blessed, my friends.