Goodbye Sweet Lady

 

In seasons of death, I'm reminded that death isn't something we are supposed to experience. Oh death where is thy sting. However, as our souls are currently the only things that are regenerated to live forever, we wait in anticipation for the day when our bodies join our souls. Meanwhile we watch as those we love deteriorate and take their last breath. We can be saddened or we can celebrate. I can't help being both. 

My 96 year old grandmother is in transition from the physical to the spiritual realms as I write this and it does sadden me to lose yet another parental figure. The last grandparent to go on either side she was born in a different age, time, style, frame of mind and society. 1927 was the year she came into this world and with it the matriarch of our family. Born in Ohio in an unassuming little town she lost her parents at a young age in her late teens. However, my grandfather caught her eye and why not. He was a handsome man through and through. She married him, he left for WW2 and she stayed back with her new in-laws. Talk about an adjustment. My grandfather returned for better or worse and life moved on. My mother and aunt came along eventually and the whole family moved to California where life was good till the girls grew up and graduated. My mother married and then I came along. Again the family picked up and moved across country to Tennessee, to the gateway of the Great Smoky Mountains. Through it all my grandparents were the rocks of our family. My image of family came from spending the holidays at their house. 

My grandfather succumbed to cancer and it left my grandmother alone. She never remarried or even thought of meeting someone else, she was singularly dedicated to her husband in life and death. Something that is very rare today. Their bond, their life was a model for me. They fussed and they had disagreements but they never let themselves get overwhelmed. They never thought of leaving each other. I looked upon them as heroes, mentors and people to emulate as I started a family of my own. 

I remember their 50th wedding anniversary like it was yesterday, yet it was nearly 30 years ago. My grandmother looked over at me and my girlfriend at the time and said, there's the next 50th right there. That girlfriend became my wife the next year, I plan on making my grandmother a profit. Almost 28 years into our marriage and we are looking forward to another twenty plus years. 

She will be missed, yet she will be welcomed as well as my grandparents will once again be reunited after a long separation. She'll see her parents again after missing them for nearly 70 years and most importantly, she'll see Jesus. I'm almost jealous. Tell all of them I said Hi and I'll see you again one day.