Today I’d like to share a guest post from my friend Kelly. She recently lost her grandma, a fun little lady well into her 90’s. Kelly is a writer at heart, someday she’ll have a novel, and I’m so proud of her.
Make sure to check out her blog http://www.masterpieceintheworks.wordpress.com
June 14, 2011
Jesus, I Sure Hope You’ve Been Brushing Up On Your Golf Game.
Filed under: Faith,Family — masterpieceintheworks @ 7:15 am
Tags: legacy, Jesus, mansion, Grandma, golf, Fruit of the Spirit, reunion, storyteller, Monopoly, quilt club
Jesus, have you been brushing up on your golf game?
I sure hope so. If you and Grandma haven’t had the chance to play a round or two, she is going to expect a lively competition. It has been such a long time since she has been able to tee off, so this event will be a treat for both of you.
I know you know her better than we do, so I hope you don’t mind me boldly, yet, humbling asking you for a few things, probably more for my benefit than helping you out. So here is my list~
1. Cheetos and Pet Milk. She is going to want to feed any cats that may be wandering through heaven. Actually she’s a friend to any critter. Remember her feeding the possum on the porch, much to Dad’s chagrin or the fawn she coaxed home and took care of in her kitchen until Fish and Game could come pick it up.
2.Her mansion needs to be tucked in the middle of couple of creeks with a big old porch and a lawn chair she can sprawl out on. She has a love of fishing with a simple pole and a big jug of limeades. My guess is she will want to take her great-grandkids that we have yet to meet down to a sandbar for a weenie roast pretty quickly. Have tucked in her bag “The Little Red Hen”. “Rumple T. Stiltskin’, and “Cousin Matilda and the Foolish Wolf” for no one do dramatic voices on these stories like she can. She needs a kitchen to whip out her shrimp and French fries that are ‘as hot as fire’ and some dirt to dig in to make flowers and veggies grow.
3.Speaking of family that has gone before her, you had best have a BIG banquet hall ready for the Kerrick reunion of all time. I remember the last big family dinner, which was a Grandma’s. People were crawling out of the woodwork! Her big old house could not contain them all. Laughter was the main dish that everyone was going back for seconds, thirds and fourths. They are a bunch of colorful personalities! It WILL be a party of epic proportions.
4. Have the Monopoly board, dominoes, and cards ready. Since her eyes recently been upgraded to perfection, she will have a much better chance at winning, although I sometimes wonder when her eyes were good, if she could have won, but landed on Broadwalk on purpose. I know you do not cheat or throw fits, so you don’t have to worry about her giving you what-for unlike the rest of us!
5. Plan for the Smiling Seamers Quilt Club to start up there sessions again. I think they all are present and accounted for. They can all see to thread their needles and make perfect stitches with no finger pricks due to steady hands and nibble fingers.
6. Would you hold on to the moment when she and Grandpa reunited on the DVR until we get there? We know they went through the rough patches of life, but they went through them together and she wore that wedding ring until it wore off. 42 years apart has been a long time. We can only imagine how it must have been.
Ok, enough of my requests and its time to thank for a couple of things.
Thank you for giving us every single moment with this spitfire of a little lady. Yesterday a couple of things hit me like a freight train. All these years, she was the example of the scripture “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependant on anyone.” (1 Thess 4:11-12) Oh my, that is her! I don’t ever remember her gossiping and if she got in your business, it was because she loved you. She also showed us that a quiet life does not mean a boring life at all!
She was a whole orchard of the Fruit of the Spirit. Her life was lived producing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness and self control. Just being with her, you couldn’t help but fill a basket to take home, no matter what shape you had shown up in her kitchen.
The phrases that comes to me to describe Grandma are “She has been our rock,” “She provided for us when we needed it”, “She’s one of the strongest people I know” and many others. Using your attributes, you used her to point us to you. Whether it was through her actions, singing “In the Garden” as she sewed, or the kids hearing her say her prayers in her bed when they spent the night, she has been a bright shining beacon to point us to you.
So as you shine up your golden golf clubs, Jesus, know that we can never thank you enough that you picked her to be a part of our life. My prayer is that we all will be able to pass on her legacy.
Olive Bertha Kerrick Parkin March 23, 1915-June 11, 2011
49andcounting 