Left to Right: My Mother, Claire, my sister, Pam, my Great Grandmother, Nancy Elizabeth, my Grandma, Mary Virginia, and me many years ago.
At my daughters home with my Grandma, in May of this year.
Pam, Van, and My Grandmother
A life that is filled with love and a life that can generously lavish love on others usually has had real LOVE modeled in some way by some one else in life. For me, that lavish love was bestowed upon my life and into my life and heart by my Grandmother, known to me as Grandma. She passed away last week, living fully until she was 99 and 1/2 years old. On her birthday, she would have turned 100! She was the Rock of our family in human terms. She was a remarkable person, a teacher in the public school system, and a countless motivator to hundreds of people. She made it her personal legacy to encourage all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren to earn either a bachelor's degree and many have either earned two degrees or a master's degree. She graduated from Austin Peay State University in Tennessee in 1956. She was generous, kind, and knowledgeable about most every subject. Every day of her life, she got up, dressed neatly and beautifully with her pearls, had her breakfast, read the newspaper, watered her flowers, read or did beautiful needlework with her hands. She gave to others every single day of her life. She traveled to all fifty of the United States, seven European Countries, the Panama Canal, and South America and Mexico. She was ahead of her time! In the late 1950's when she decorated her home, she purchased beautiful, stylish, and modern looking sofas and chairs, which today might be found in a gallery of Jonathan Alder. She was a cool lady in every way! She collected beautiful antiques that were handed down to her by her aunt and her mother in law. She enjoyed collecting sterling silver and then gave most all of it away to her daughter and granddaughters. If she knew there was something that you might desire, she would give it to you. She was a selfless person. She left a legacy to her family that will live on. A scholarship fund has been established in her name at The Pinnacle Bank in Ashland City, Tennessee to be awarded each year to a student entering a university or college who desires to become a teacher. I know that the hope of seeing her again one day in Heaven awaits me and my family. "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:5 Our Lord describes a kind of love here in this verse known to us a agape love. Agape is an undefeatable benevolence and unconquerable goodwill that always seeks the highest good of the other person, no matter what he does or does not do. It is the self-giving love that gives freely without asking anything in return, and does not consider the worth of its object. Agape is more a love by choice. Agape describes the unconditional love God has for the world. Go out and love someone in that way today......the world will be a better place because you did. My Grandmother made the world a better place. I love her and will treasure her memory forever! I hope you will enjoy these beautiful pictures of her visiting Jackson Square in New Orleans just three months ago with me, my sister, Pam, and my brother, Van.....what a blast. Also a picture of me with my daughter, Kristen, and two of her children. Loving us to the end.......Thank you Grandma for a life well lived. Our children certainly have a lasting legacy in you~
