Mom

We all agreed those last 13 months we had with Mom were our most precious.

Eleven years ago during the late night July 12 - early morning July 13 - my Mom went home to be with Jesus and join Dad --
Mom lived with Heaven as a reality -- it might be because her parents both died when she was a young mother. 

  Heaven first became real to me because of my mother's practical real-life view of it. She believed that God would call her in HIS time not some nurse's prediction.

The night she transitioned to her new home -- Terry said her eyes lit up as she was "moving out" of this make-shift haven we'd created for her.  

It was appropriate that Mom went to meet her Jesus on Sunday night-- Mom loved Sundays and going to Church.  She would have a nurse sit with Dad and she would then take the nurse's children to Sunday school with her.  She and Dad had us in Church three times a week.

I remember my friends who were there to help us that day -- Treva Mincelli and Carol Butler White stayed with her while I took Terry to the ER as tendons in  his knee had snapped.  

Mark Doughtery came to be with us after she passed.

My two nurse friends knew it was going to be the day she left us -- but I had it in my mind I could keep her alive until my brother got home from his Zambia mission.   

Bethany observed that as he took off for Africa on the previous Friday -- Mom was beginning her journey.  Nurses were observing the changes in her for days.

Like most times she's close in my thoughts -- but every July since that time I think about her most -- --
 . . . this morning I was cleaning silks off the corn on the cob (I'd bought a bushel of and left too long in the fridge)
 -- I was thinking how she loved corn and spent so many of her summers freezing it in such a laborious way of cutting it off the ear -- cooking it quickly and then putting the pan in a cold bath -

-none of that for me -- Just clean the ears and toss them in the freezer.  I realized Mom would NEVER have left corn for over a week -- it was always fresh from the garden to the freezer in a matter of a few hours for her. 

I was in the garage and came across one of her old chairs 

--sorting through a kitchen drawer I came across some of her handwritten recipes. there was a whole book of how to can.  This time of year she spent so much time in the kitchen freezing, canning, making jellies and sauces.

She's left us a legacy of hard work, strong faith, tender caregiving  and love for teaching children God's Word.



Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of HIS saints.  Psalm 116:5