Deployment Day #51

My grandmother died.

She is the last grandparent on either side and my children’s last great grandparent. She lived a long life and was loved by many.

My grandma is your typical grandma. I’ve always joked with my cousins that from the moment I remember her she’s looked like a grandma. In fact she hasn’t changed a whole lot in 40 years.

She wore grandma sweaters and grandma pants and white tennis shoes, except the one time my aunt bought her jeans.

She loved every phone call, card, and visit. She sent letters to her kids, grandkids, great grandkids, extended family, neighbors, and friends. She didn’t have a lot of money, but she would always pick out the perfect card or sticker to put in the card for the kids.

For my girls the cards would always have cute kitty cats or horses and a flower sticker. They loved getting cards from her even though they could never read her handwriting.

Since I was little every single time I talked to her in person, on the phone, or got a card from her she told me the very same story.

One day she was in her house and got a phone call from my parents. They told her they were on their way to pick me up from the children’s home. She was officially a grandmother! She was so excited that she knocked the phone and the phone stand over. (Remember phone stands?)

When she picked the phone back up she was talking into the wrong end and couldn’t hear anything. But she was so excited she didn’t know that she was talking into the wrong end of the phone.

I’ve heard that story more times than I can remember. She loved telling it. It never got old to her, not once.

photo credit: Hoptocopter

If you took her out to lunch (even McDonalds) she would rave about the food. I remember my dad took her for seafood once and she had clam chowder. She talked about that clam chowder forever!

The news about my grandma comes at the end of a very long week. Yesterday I felt like I couldn’t take one more thing and then came one more thing.

Then I got this email from my dad …

An answer to prayer from a gracious God. . .

Some times when we ask God for special things we think only to selfishly ease our own burden or pain of maybe the struggle of a loved one.  And yet, God is not obligated to grant our request because John 16:33 says in world you will have trouble. Tribulation and trials are a part of life and they build character and perseverance.  We are partakers of His suffering so in a strange way we identify with Him in His suffering and death on the cross.  Many suffer much through life and also suffer through the process of death.

Nonetheless, we continued to pray for God to be gracious to our dear Grandma Stell in her final years on this earth. We wanted God (the author and sustainer of life) to spare her from a painful protracted end that would overshadow her always joyful and thankful spirit.

Today, God granted that request.   All the questions and concerns for her future have now been put to rest.  No more will we ponder what her future might hold –  transfer to a nursing home, loss of mobility, loss of mental capacity and memory, confusion and illusions, pain and morphine, running out of money, hospice care or seeing someone else living in 301 S. Dickson Street, the home that Joe built for her.

Yes the questions have all been answered.  God graciously took her during the night while she sat in her favorite chair in the new home which she loved, keenly aware that she was loved by many, especially her children.

Not a Bible scholar or theologian, just a simple women with a simple faith and yet genuine in every respect.  What a grand and glorious homecoming this must be for her.  John 14 talks about a room in a mansion that God has prepared for us.  I know she has said her house at 301 Dickson St. is the only house she would ever want, but do you think she might be changing her mind about now?

Thank you Lord for granting our request and making her journey home easy.

 

My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days.  These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence.  I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014.  To read from the beginning, click here.