In Memory of My Grandmother, Toot
It happened a little over two weeks ago and still doesn’t seem real.
Toot (as we all called my grandmother, Virginia Nelson – my mom’s mom – on the right in the picture above) fell in January and broke her femur. After that, she stayed in a rehab center. On Feb 21, she went to the hospital with pain in her shoulder. It turned out she had a blood clot in her lung. She rallied for a bit, then around 6:30am on Feb 22, 2017, she went to be with Jesus.
I called Toot “my crazy grandmother”, and I meant it with complete respect and love. She made me laugh. Like the time years ago she fell in the grocery store, by the egg section, and I asked her, “Why were you doing gymnastics in the grocery store? Did you at least have good form?”
Her answer: “Well, I guess so… I didn’t break any eggs.”
No- she just broke her pelvis that time!
The last time I spoke with her, she was in so much pain. Her voice was thick with it. My last words to her were, “I love you, Toot, and I’m so sorry you’re in pain.”
She isn’t in pain anymore—and that is such a beautiful, wonderful thing.
It hurts here, because I know I won’t see her for a while. But I know she isn’t suffering anymore. She lived well, and she gave it everything she had. I was proud to be her granddaughter and still am. Now she is with her Savior, and reunited with her first husband, my Papa, who died in 1986.
The weekend of her passing, I wrote this on Facebook. I thought I’d share it here:
About 30 seconds after I hung up the phone from hearing my mother tell me my grandmother had passed away last Wed, I heard the lyrics to the chorus of Elevation Worship’s “Let Us Adore” in my heart. In that moment, I realized that she was finally no longer in pain and very much in the presence of her King.
The next day, my brother got up early to trim the bushes at her South Ga home, and saw a rainbow above the family farm.
She was buried in Atlanta, and right before we left the graveside, my mom plucked 2 unopened tiger lily buds (my favorite flower) from one of the floral arrangements. I doubted they would open, but put them in a vase with a different bouquet. Last night, the bigger bud had loosened. And overnight, it completely opened.
This morning, I was stunned by its beauty.
Today, I went to her grave. It was as we’d left it 2 days ago, and she is most definitely not there. As I sat beside her and my Papa, I looked up and saw the 2 trees in the distance, standing high on the next hill. And saw something I didn’t see on Sat.
At some point, a branch on the top left of the tree on the left broke, fell, and got caught on the branch below it – forming the shape of a perfect cross.
This cross soars above the entire cemetery.
What a reminder that death is not the end – just a new beginning – for those who are in Christ.
And on the way back, stopped to get the cheesecake I’ve been craving for 2 months, because Toot was a diabetic and is no more- and never will be again- and I know she’d approve.
