Recently our church has had several of our older members die and today a very dear lady went Home to join the others. She was a tiny lady and when I say lady, I mean it. She was always there when I was a kid in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. When I was picking strawberries the other day I was thinking about another dear lady who helped out at church all the time. She died many years ago but she was a huge part of my childhood. Now I am involved in so many things at church with the children. I hope when my time comes they will remember how much them meant to me. I love all of them so much. Even the rowdy ones that I tell I am going to pinch their heads off one of these days! I hope when my time comes they remember that I don't want a funeral or a grave or any type of marker. (Unless they want to keep a basket of suckers sitting out for the children since I am the one who brings them candy for after the children's story.) I hope the memories of our years together will be memorial enough. I hope they will just think of me and say, "She left nothing behind to cry over. She used it all up. She had few regrets and She loved us and her family almost as much as she loved her Lord." Sorry if this is too sappy for some, but I am just processing the loss of our deal Little Margaret and feeling a bit sad for those of us left behind.
Beautiful, Beth!!! I had a guy teach me in Sunday School when I was in grades 4,5 and 6. His wife helped, but he was the main teacher. Every Christmas, he would take us caroling to shut-ins, and then have a big Christmas party at his house. He eventually left the church to be part of a church plant closer to his home. YEARS later, when I first started teaching, I had a long-term sub position in an Orthopedically Handicapped class. We had a young lady that actually should be going to a different school, because she was older. But she had been at this school a few years back, had moved to Cincinnati, and had just moved in with her grandparents. There was only a month left of school, and they felt she would do better in the building she "already knew" just for that month. So she was put in my class. Then, a consultant asked me her grandparents' names one day. I told her, and she said, "I once knew a man named....." And I said, "So did I when I was a kid!" Well, I got looking at G'ma's name, and I couldn't for the LIFE of me remember what his wife's name was! So I asked Mom. The wife was Betty, and the grandma was Elizabeth. The granddaughter had Spina Bifida. Mom got to thinking, and said it HAD to be them, because she remembered when the little girl was born the church had prayed about her because of her health problems. So I wrote them a note, and told them it was me (!!!). I was kinda disappointed they hadn't said anything, because I was still single, and my last name wasn't at all common. But I told them I was all grown up now, and I prayed that I could have as great an influence on their granddaughter's life as they had had on mine. They came to school toward the end, and I wanted SO MUCH to give them a hug, but wasn't sure it would be appropriate!
