In Loving Memory...

Grandma

1923-2013

I always loved sitting and chatting with Grandma at the kitchen table over a meal. It was during those times that I learned a lot about our family and the way she thought. It was at that table in the kitchen where I learned that her father was saved on his deathbed, surrounded by his family. It was at that table where I learned about Grandma’s grueling assembly line job putting airplane parts together in Kansas City during the war. I learned why Grandma would always send some cash to the Injured Veteran’s of America whenever they would solicit her: she knew it could have been Dennis, her youngest. It was at that table where I learned the reason that Grandma never stopped completing those silly fortune telling word puzzles from that weekly magazine of hers. It was because one time it got it right…TWINS.


I learned of some of the old funny stories she would often share…like when Uncle Ronnie made fun of Denise because of her using a small juice glass instead of a regular glass for her breakfast drinks, or when my mom cried through her wedding and Grandma thought she didn’t have to marry her son if she was going to cry about it. I learned about the family dog, Inky, sliding around on the ice at the pond and the antics of three kids growing up in a small house together. I learned how proud she was of them. If there was one thing I learned about Grandma at that table, it was that she was a very proud woman! I really think that must have been her favorite word. She used it a hundred times a day.

It was at that table where Grandma told me how difficult it was to send her oldest son and his young family thousands of miles away so they could act on their calling. She realized later that sending them off was her calling. As a result, she later became very active in the women's missionary union at church. She got to practice it again many years later when her youngest son moved his young family to The Philippines with Wycliffe to help translate the Bible in his wife’s family’s native language.

I learned that Grandma and I didn’t always agree on things, but we were perfectly content to agree to disagree on topics such as church dress, church music and preaching styles. I specifically remember one time, after a rather heated discussion, I had to practice the very difficult task of saying “I’m sorry,” when I had used some rather harsh words toward her. I remember her being incredibly gracious and her reply was to laugh and say, “I’ve been called worse things than that before, Marci.”  But, when it came down to it we respected each other’s opinions and realized that the most important thing we did agree upon was God’s great love for both of us…and all of us, for that matter.

One more thing I learned about Grandma at that kitchen table was that she prayed for her family. She prayed for everyone by name, very often. She prayed about current marriages, and future marriages and our children and future children. She prayed for our health and she prayed for blessing and she prayed for prosperity. I feel blessed to be a part of such a legacy and am thankful for such a model as I move forward.