My dear grandma entered into her rest today. It was completely unexpected and we are all a little shaken. As I understand it, she went to church this morning and as the pastor greeted her in her pew after the service, she went directly from shaking his hand and into the loving arms of her dear savior. As my mom said, the hand of her pastor was actually the hand of the Lord, pulling her from this world and into the next.
She was my last living grandparent and I feel a little disconnected right now. I wish that I could have said goodbye. The last time that I saw her was at Callie’s wedding a year and a half ago, where she looked stunning as always and then whipped us all at Ladder Golf the next day. She usually whipped us all at whatever game she ever played with anybody. I am thankful for the many, many games of Scrabble and Boggle that I got to play with her over the years. I didn’t beat her much but when I did, it was something worth bragging about because not many people could beat my grandma in word games. I come by my competitive nature honestly. 🙂
As I sit here tonight, alone in my temporary home in California, while the rest of my family sets up house at our new permanent home in the next town over, I am amazed at the brevity of this life. My grandma, in her brief eight-plus decades on this earth, did brevity well. She built quite a life for her family, always steady, always working, always worshipping God, always making things beautiful, always taking time to play. She never wavered in her devotion to my grandpa (or the rest of her family), and was always willing to pass on the things she had learned to me, in the brief moments that I had with her in the brief life that she lived.
I am so very thankful for the love that was passed down to me through her.
I came across this video tonight from just a few years ago, where she’s sitting by my grandpa’s side as he plays one of his old songs. Everything about this video makes me smile, from my grandpa’s long-windedness, to my grandma’s silent adoration by his side, to the memory of how their house sounded every time I ever visited. I’m going to miss them both for the rest of my life. And I will look forward to seeing them both again someday, which should only be just a brief while from now.
Abide with us, O Lord, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent; abide with us, and with Thy whole Church. Abide with us in the evening of the day, in the evening of life, in the evening of the world. Abide with us in Thy grace and mercy, in holy Word and Sacrament, in Thy comfort and Thy blessing. Abide with us in the night of distress and fear, in the night of doubt and temptation, in the night of bitter death, when these shall overtake us. Abide with us and all Thy faithful ones, O Lord, in time and in eternity.
Fierce Peace 