Heaven: a wonderful place

On Monday morning we had to say good bye to one of the strongest, most caring, loving mother, aunt, friend, sister and wonderful granny. I have only had the privilege of knowing her for 7 years, which was mostly through 3 weeks of getting to spend time with her and the rest of the years of writing letters and being able to see her when she came home. She was 94 but she got around better than most people and was still in her on state of mind. I recently wrote about her having cancer, well of course the cancer won. Even if I would not have had the honor of getting to know this woman there would be no way that I could not love her, you see she has let me live in her house for the past 7 years. I am so thankful to her for this. Before she even met me she allowed me to stay her, she opened her arms like I was her own granddaughter. Like I said in the first line she was all them words but so much more. Being at the visitation Wednesday night and funeral Thursday, you could see how many lives she had touched. Everyone talked about her cooking, she was a damn good cook-actually the best cook I have ever met. And I am not the only person who though this, lol, everyone talked about the cookies, cakes, breakfast, lunches, and dinners that she had cooked them or their families and how they were always great. I had always known that she was a wonderful person but being able to hear people talk about all the wonderful things that she had done to help or just be a friend, made me think more of her, which was hard because I had already thought the world of her. If there is one thing I am sure of, it is that I KNOW that she is in heaven looking down on us. We could not ask for a better ANGEL to be watching over us every second of the day.
She was buried yesterday at Liberty cemetery, beside her first husband and above our babies. It was a beautiful service, thanks to Brother David Reeves and Earl Dowdy. Afterwards everyone gathered inside the church to have lunch, we stayed for a minute but then left. We had finally made it home from town when Mr.Donald and Joel had pulled up telling us that something must have happened to Aunt Sis because there were ambulance there when they passed by, Aunt Sis is Grannys youngest sister. Mr. Donald asked me if I would ride with him over there to see what was going on, so has we headed that way Joel called to let us know that Tara just called to tell us that Aunt Sis was found dead in the chair when they had arrived there to check on her. Aunt Sis was 92 and still lived on her own, like granny, but had been sick here and there for some time now. Everyone is saying that granny stopped to pick up Aunt Sis to take her to heaven on her way there. They went ahead an had the visitation tonight and the funeral will be tomorrow, since it will be raining the next couple of days, they wanted to go ahead so ppl wouldn’t have to be out in the rain. When we arrived at the funeral home tonight we found out that they had read Aunt Sis’s diary, she had written in it not long before she passed away that she knew it would be her last time writing in it because she was going to die tomorrow. People would say that it is odd that she knew that she was fixing to die, but I am thinking that granny and God was by her side letting her know that it was her time to move on to a better place. We had also found out the day of grannys funeral that she has known for at least a year or more that she had cancer but did not tell anyone, that is why she was ready to come home (back to TN). I had only met Aunt Sis one time but I knew that she was a wonderful person just like Granny. Even though we were all sad we know that they have lived a long healthy, wonderful life and that they are now with the Lord. I believe that they would want us to remember the times that we were able to spend together and just to live for God so that we will be able to join them when it is our time. Granny had a husband, Claude, which some of us were not all that fond of, but I can say that we all see him in a different way now. We could see how much he is hurting because he lost the other love of his life, he had lost his first love when he was 20 something. It hurt me to see him hurt so bad. He is 102, yes 102 and he is just like one of us or like granny was… he can get around and does exercise every morning and night. He says the trick to living old is: work and eating a bowl of oatmeal every morning. It puts me at ease to know that granny is still by his side and will continue to be until he joins her in heaven.
So this week we all had to say good bye to two wonderful women but not goodbye forever. Something like this will make you realize how blessed you are to have people in your life and to let them know everyday that you love them with all your heart. I was not able to have this woman in my life for along time but I am blessed that I was brought into her life and that she touched my heart just like she did with others. I love you granny, you take care of yourself and please watch over my daddy, and our babies, and please continue to watch over us..