It’s been over two decades that you left this earth for the place that Jesus prepared for you.

As of last August, I have now lived longer than you were able. I find it so hard realizing how young you were and how young I and Dana really were. In my mind, I still feel like your daughter growing up under your roof; yet, I am now older than you with grown children, some grown grandchildren, and even a small great-granddaughter in the family.

How did you do it? Of course, I know you had no choice, just as I had no choice. I also know how strongly you believed in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, and that is how you lived to the end. Thank you for your example throughout the years you spent here on earth.

My days are moving quickly now. Unfortunately, I am moving slower. The side effects of my heart medications no longer allow me to complete my goals in the time I think I can do it. I think back on your final years and wonder how you accomplished what you did, and I realize your priorities. You loved your garden and took such good care of all that you planted. You loved your family even more and took even greater care of them. In between, you rested.

You knew I was too “experienced” in caregiving and still grieving from the deaths of Megan and Slick. You tried to protect me as much as you could, but I wanted to be there with you as much as possible. I am so thankful now that I was young enough with the strength from the Lord to help take care of you, too.

So, today, April 5th, I remember your last moments as I do every year on this date; and I shed a few tears, but not as many as I did 21 years ago. Ok, maybe I do sometimes. I miss you. But, I give thanks that God gave you to me. I give thanks that Dana is still here with me. I give thanks for your many, wonderful examples as a mother and a Christian to your girls. I give thanks that my time is growing shorter for when I can see you again.

I can only imagine (as the song goes) how astonishing it is at your new, Jesus-prepared place. How many times has Grandad mumbled under his breath about those “cackling women” as you and Gran laugh out loud?! How many conversations have you and Slick carried on? How’s my baby girl? You have a newly-arrived nephew, David Wayne, or as you called him by the meaning of his names, the “Holy Wagonmaker,” and laughed each time you said it. Have you guys talked each other’s ears off yet?

My prayer these days is to spend my days on God’s purposes for my life. I want to honor Him until my final day just as you did. I want my son and the rest of the family to remember me as a woman that loved her Lord and Savior and loved her family like you. (They already know I don’t love gardening as you did. Dirt makes me dirty, and you know that I have never liked getting dirty.)

So, Mom, enjoy your Home-going Day! Enjoy your rest. See ya soon.

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; i it were not so, I would have hold you; for I go to preare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:1-3