Rest in Peace

I haven’t been around much lately, because we’ve lost a dear member of our family, my husband’s mother. This photo shows her just a few years ago, but she was only six weeks shy of turning 95 when she died just over a week ago. She’d been declining over the past few years, had lost most of her eyesight, and had other health problems; but nothing kept her down. Everyone who knew her said she had spunk, and that was true. Nothing pleased her more than visits and phone calls from family, including three living children, ten grandchildren, and — at last count — 19 great-grandchildren.

She was known to one and all as Nanny; all of her grandchildren’s friends called her that, too. She used to say that she was so old that no one would be left to come to her funeral, but she needn’t have worried. In the small town where she was born and lived her entire life, the church was full, with people standing in the vestibule and outside the doors. Four members of the clergy from various churches helped to officiate at the service, something I’d never seen happen there before. It was a fitting tribute to a caring lady.

The family all misses her so much, but the fact remains that she’s now where lately she most wanted to be: reunited with her late husband and her eldest son.