First, some background - my mother was the founder of our church card ministry. (I talked about her here.) After spending her entire life in South Dakota, she moved to our town, just a few miles from us, when my youngest son was born and became a daily part of my kid's lives. She was a fun grandma - walks to the park, movies, and she was at every event that my kids were in.
She died very unexpectedly in May of 2006 at the age of 67 when my youngest was only 6 years old. One of my biggest regrets was that, being so young, he would not remember his fun-loving grandma.
As a total side note - her death really woke up the women of our congregation to the fact that women feel heart attacks very differently than men. In my mother's case, it was a severe back pain. If you haven't read about woman's symptoms - please take some time to do so.
Erik (my youngest) had a sleep-over at her house the night before. I had picked him up in the morning, but my mom was going to come over in the afternoon to pick both boys up for a movie. She didn't show up. After calling repeatedly, we all hopped in the car to go to her house. I left the boys in the car and found that my mother had died. I called 911 and given that the fire station was practically in her backyard, they were at the house with sirens blaring before I could go back out the car and talk to the boys.
Another side note - I want you to know that although I miss her - I cannot truly grieve her death. My mother was a widow at 35 years old and she mourned my father for the remainder of her life. She had great faith in the Lord and I know she is exactly where she had always wanted to be - at her husband's side in our Father's house.
And...to briefly take you out of this sad post - I have to tell you how the policemen came up with her time of death. They knew that we expected her at 1:00 and, in her house, they found shopping bags from Hobby Lobby and Michaels with shopping receipts at 11:30. She spent her last hours shopping for cardmaking!!!
Back to the point of this post. Although we certainly talk about Grandma and we have many, many pictures, I have assumed that Erik has very little memory of her. So when he came home with this poem that he had written, I was briefly saddened by his vivid memories of that day but then I felt so joyful that he remembered the "fun" and that he has the faith to realize that her death was not a "goodbye".
Waiting at your
house, waiting for you to
come out to have fun as
I hear the low wee-woo wee-woo
of sirens of trucks getting
louder and I know you
will not come out again.
No goodbyes.
Rest in peace Grandma.
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