Today Ive been thinking about a lady born long ago. Her immediate family was a large one and when her mother died her father remarried and had more children. According to census papers, when she left home she became paid help in a household where she met and then married her husband who was quite a bit older than her. Nothing out of the ordinary for that time. She and her husband then proceeded to start their own family. During all this time before and after marriage, she was a diligent worker never complaining and always doing her very best. She was a peaceful, loving, caring woman whose care went beyond her family to her neighbors and animals. She was known to raise orphaned squirrels along with her cats/kittens, dog and birds. In the summer you could find her placing old coffee cans in the eaves of her porch so wrens could make a nest for their future babies. She protected those nests as much as the mother wren did always making sure other birds such as starlings stayed away. On that porch and throughout the yard her green thumb could be seen. She used old coffee and shortening cans for flowerpots and no where could one find plants as lush and full of flowers as hers. She would sit on her porch every summer evening with her granddaughter and who ever happened to be visiting at the time. Filled to the brim with some of the best cooking a person could ever find, there was no better entertainment than sitting with her listening to the whippoorwills, frogs, and crickets as they seemed to synchronize their music into the most beautiful symphony ever written. She could be found sitting there well into the night listening to that symphony, her granddaughter, the lone car that might pass just waiting for the house to cool down before going to bed. The next morning would find her up early doing her chores because she was a Proverbs 31 woman. Not only did her husband, children and grandchildren call her blessed but anyone who ever met her. She had a way of making any one (every one) feel special. Each child thought they were her favorite as did each grandchild. She did not have to utter a word to make them feel this way. As a matter of fact, she was a woman of such few words that you could be with her for hours and realize that she had never said a word other than to ask if you needed anything. She especially made her granddaughter feel that way. Due to illness this granddaughter began staying with her at an early age so she would not be alone at night. The idea was that the granddaughter would be able to get help if needed. What others didnt know was once that young girl entered her grandmothers house she was made to feel like a princess. When the granddaughter came through the door, her grandmother immediately stopped talking to anyone she happened to be on the phone with and say I have to go now my girl is home. Her eyes were lit up with love for her granddaughter who looked at her in the same way. This went on for years until the granddaughter married. The young girl missed her grandmother terribly and the grandmother felt the same way often telling her granddaughter when she came to visit that nights were just not the same without her. During one of their visits the grandmother made her granddaughter promise that she would never allow any of the grandmothers children to take her into their home. Truly a servant until the end she did not want to be a problem to anyone. The granddaughter told her she would never have to worry about that because she would take the grandmother into her home and consider it a privilege. Making sure the young girl knew that she wanted to be placed in a nursing home should the time come when she could no longer take care of herself, she then stopped what probably was their longest conversation (As I said before, she was a woman of few words.) and true to form, began asking if she could get the granddaughter anything. God blessed this beautiful lady by allowing her to stay in her own home until she had a massive stroke and one week later passed away. A bittersweet passing since it was on the granddaughters birthday. Today is that beautiful womans birthday and as the granddaughter writes this the tears that would not come at her grandmothers funeral are now making her do the ugly cry. Happy Birthday Mammie! Ive missed you every day since you passed 37 years ago. You were more than a grandmother to me, you were my loving momma. Thanks for making this girl feel like a princess.
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 02:35:05 +0000
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