Happy Birthday, MawMaw

November 23, 1903
Clara Elizabeth was born. She led a beautiful life that was simple. Better said, her life was simply beautiful. She was simply beautiful, inside and out. She was my paternal grandmother. She was amazing and I am who I am because of the love she poured into me. I grew up across the road from her. She was 70 years old when I was born and she was more full of life at 70 than I am at 36. She was tender and graceful and the hardest worker I've ever known. She had beautiful white hair and hundreds of wrinkles, and she was beauty in its truest form. Her beauty came from within and it radiated from her and affected everyone near her. Her beauty came from a relationship with Christ that makes mine look minuscule. She was obedient. She was honest. She was loving. I cannot think of one positive adjective that would not be appropriate to use in describing her. I have few memories from childhood that do not involve her in some way or another. She loved me, she took care of me, she protected me, she taught me, and she played with me. She was a treasure...and even today, I miss her terribly.

This morning, my daddy had to remind me that it was her birthday. That made me sad. She has been living with Jesus since 1995. She died right before I graduated from Auburn. She was proud of me, and that meant the world to me. I told Daddy I would think of her all day and he shouldn't have mentioned it to me but I told him I was glad he had. I don't have one bad memory of her, even my last memory is sad but still good.

In her honor, here are some random things about her; memories I treasure; and things I will never forget...

• I spent her entire last day on this earth sitting beside her bed. I was holding her hand when God spoke her name and called her home. I was holding her hand when she let go of mine and reached out for His. It was pure peace and worthy of worship. She had lived for Him and she was ready to live with Him.
• She could cook anything better than anyone. She always had something warm waiting for me when I got off the bus in the winter.
• She always kept me when I was sick.
• She didn't have a lock on her door and I would often go over after she had gone to bed and I would climb into bed with her. When I would open the door, she would call, "Lyn, is that you?" I can still hear her call out to me.
• Her mother died when she was about 13. Her mother died in childbirth. MawMaw raised her little brother as her own son. He looked just like her. He died a few years ago and I was blessed to see him just a few months before he died. I could not stop looking at his hands, they were her hands.
• She could work several gardens and grow the most amazing vegetables.
• She had apple trees and she would peel them and put them on tin in the sun to dry and then she would stew them and put them up so she would have them to make fried apple pies.
• She always drank out of the same coffee cup. It is one of my small treasures that I have from her and it is never used.
• She always wore a bonnet. I don't have one of her bonnets but wish so badly that I did.
• She had a quilting frame and quilting was her gift. Chad and I sleep under one of her quilts every night. We have several and they are treasures, but they are treasures we use. She would not approve of me not using those.
• She had a necklace that my daddy had made for her when he was in Vietnam. It was hand carved from an elephant tusk. It looks like graduated pearls but when you inspect it closely, each one is a unique carved flower. My smom has it now.
• She knew her Bible inside and out because she read it daily and because she lived it daily.
• She always treated everyone the same. She loved everyone and she did not use words to tear others down. She disciplined through teaching with love and kindness.
• She raised chickens and she loved those chickens but she raised them for food and they were. In other words, I didn't grow up thinking you got chicken for dinner from the grocery store, in my world, it came from the yard.
• She was interested in everything I did and she always stopped to listen to me.
• She grieved with me when my parent's divorced. For a while, she provided the only stability I felt like I had left in the world.
• She was visiting a church I went to for revival on the night I gave my heart to Jesus. She and my daddy were there and they came to the alter and stood with me when the pastor shared my decision with the church. She was so full of praise for my salvation. I suspect she had been praying all my life for that moment.
• She was so proud of me for going to college.
• We had a special bond. She was my friend.
• She was so wise and her wisdom was always just what I needed when I would seek her counsel.

My sweet MawMaw, I remember so much. I will never forget what you meant to my life. I pray that today you are celebrating this day with our Savior, Jesus Christ. I praise Him for you and for the 21 years I got to have you. You were a special gift to my life that came directly from God!