Today my granny Pauline would have been 92, instead she is spending her first birthday in heaven with Jesus and all of her loved ones that passed before her. My granny lived with dementia for a few years before passing away in January. What a terrible, terrible disease for the one who is suffering from it and loved ones who are suffering in a different way. Watching someone you love with all your heart, change and diminish right before your eyes is a very hard thing to endure. I know my granny is happy, healthy, and back to her loving life ways in heaven where she now has life in abundance.
My granny Pauline loved me so much and she showed it every day of her life. But that's how she loved everyone. She made everyone feel special, feel loved unconditionally, and you wanted to just stay a little longer with her every time you were around her. And she wanted you to stay. She'd make every excuse in the world for you to not go home~ she had dinner cooking, she'd pour you another cup of sweet tea, stay just a little longer and she'd whip up an entire pie plate of biscuits for you to take home. Hospitality at it's finest in the smallest kitchen in the world.
Granny also was my first teacher. She didn't use books but she told me stories. She sang and recited every nursery rhyme known to man while we were going to sleep. She's the one who told me about Little Bo Peep and Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. She also told stories from her childhood, some were so fantastic that you had to wonder if they were true. Turns out, they mostly were. I know that granny Futch won the Lawtey spelling bee by spelling "Perpendicular". And that her dad was leaving to join the army when the church bells rang that peace had been won. I know that she spent days in the fields picking strawberries as a child when not playing hide and seek with her cousins and her nephews that were her age. As a granny she took me to pick strawberries too. She didn't seem to mind that for every one I put into the basket, two more were already in my mouth.
Granny knew how to make the ordinary special. She didn't have much money and she would carefully plan a weekend cooking menu when family was in from town. On more than a few occasions I saw her chatting it up with the butcher so she could get her meat cut exactly the way she wanted it and maybe for a discount. She made bread and butter sandwiches seem like gourmet meals when she cut off the crust and her ordinary pancakes melted in my mouth because she made them bite-sized. Even a day at the lake was a special occasion when she picked up thick rind cheddar cheese and fresh cut bologna for a picnic in the grass.
When I go to heaven one day, I fully expect to see her running my way, welcoming me home, and asking me to stay at the feet of Jesus with her for just a little while longer. She will have even more stories to tell me, for her memory will be perfect, and her laugh will echo throughout the heavens.
I am so thankful that God allowed her to be my granny. For I truly was the most blessed child to have such a wonderful example of hospitality, love, compassion, and understanding of what is truly important during these numbered days on Earth.
Your love never fails, never gives up
Never runs out on me
Higher than the mountains that I face
Stronger than the power of the grave
Constant in the trial and the change
One thing remains
On and on and on and on it goes
It overwhelms and satisfies my soul
And I never, ever, have to be afraid
One thing remains
Your love never fails, never gives up
Never runs out on me
In death, in life
I'm confident and covered by the power of Your great love
My debt is paid
There's nothing that can separate my heart from Your great love
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