Celebrating Mammaw

My Mammaw passed away on November 16th.  She was my Dad's mom and my last living grandparent.  She was 97 and had been in a nursing home for almost 7 years.  Her name was Edith and she was such a strong woman.  

My memories of Mammaw are going to visit her and Pappaw just about every Saturday growing up .  The whole family would come and hang out.  Dad would work on the farm with Pappaw, Mammaw would cook one of her wonderful "Mammaw meals" consisting of macaroni and cheese, homemade rolls, butter beans, fried chicken or steak, yummy pies or cinnamon rolls etc., and my cousins and I would play either in Mammaw and Pappaw's big walk-in closet or outside in the barn or in the yard.  I will always cherish those memories.  They are precious.

This was my Mammaw and Pappaw's house where we spent all those Saturdays.

That is the barn we used to play in.  My dad still uses it for hay for his cows.  He keeps his cows down there part of the year.

My Mammaw was a great cook.  She was also known for her quilting.  She quilted for years and years.  She was a faithful Christian.  As long as she could, she attended her church and Sunday school.  She helped with Cullen Baker Country Fair where she would make pies.

She had 9 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren all who loved her dearly.

I am so glad that my kids got to know her--at least a little.  I don't know what they will remember of her as they grow older, but I can tell them about her.

Here she is meeting Hannah for the first time.

Hannah was about 2 weeks old.  I look rough.  Ha!

This was Christmas 2004.  She is holding Hannah and is surrounded by all her great-grandkids at the time.

Here she is holding Lincoln for the first time.  He was about 2 months old.

This was Thanksgiving 2007.  She and my Mama Cille (Mom's mom) got to be roommates in the nursing home.  That was kind of neat.  We had Thanksgiving at my parent's house that year and they were both there.

Uncle Dave, Mama Cille, and Mammaw.

My two wonderful grandmothers.

We have a lot of June birthdays in my family.  Wes, my Dad, my Pappaw, and my Mammaw were born in June.  Now Kris and Layton are included in that.  This is Mammaw in June 2008.  I think we were celebrating birthdays.  She was 92 I think.

In May of 2009, my aunts brought her out to Mom and Dad's new house.  This may have been the last time she was able to come out there.

This is my Dad with his two sisters, Beverly and Betty.  My Aunt Beverly sang two songs at Mammaw's funeral.  I don't know how she did that.  She did a great job.  It was special. She sang "Beulah Land" and "It Is Well".

 Lincoln was giving goodbye hugs.

I am so glad she got to see Layton too.  Here she is meeting him for the first time at the nursing home in August of 2010.  He was about 2 months old.

The last few years it was harder to really visit well with Mammaw when we saw her.  Her mind was not the same.  Most of the time she knew who I was when I told her but would ask about the kids over and over.  One time she asked me how old I was and when I told her she said, "You ain't that old" like she couldn't believe it.  Ha!

This was in February of this year.  She was really not talkative much at all.  Her quality of life was just nothing.  I will say that the nursing home where she was was really good.  It wasn't one of those smelly ones and the workers were very sweet and caring.

Layton was showing Mammaw a boo boo.

My last picture with my Mammaw and the kids..

In June we went to visit her for her birthday.  She had fallen and so she had a black eye and looked pitiful.

These were the last pictures I have of her from July.

Kris was always so sweet with Mammaw and would joke around with her.  Before the last few years she would laugh, but more recently she didn't really understand his jokes I don't think.  But I appreciate his sweetness with her so much.  I know she liked him.

Her funeral was wonderful.  It was sad because we will miss seeing her.  But it was a happy occasion as well.  She is home.  She is with Pappaw and more importantly, the Lord.  I am thankful for that.

It was good to be with family.  I miss them.  We don't get together much any more.  Everyone is busy with their own lives and live in different places.

This is my cousin Lori's oldest son, Austin, and my cousin Joe's son, Will.

This is my Uncle Joe (Aunt Betty's husband), Lori's daughter, Anna, and Austin.

Sitting next to Will is his dad, my cousin, Joe.

My Aunt Betty and Aunt Beverly.

Lincoln and Layton, with my cousin Marty and his wife, Becca, and son, Jackson.

My Dad has finally completely retired, but most of the people from his office that worked closely with him came either to the visitation or funeral.  I know it meant a lot to my Dad.

Hannah and my cousin, Marty's daughter, Emerson.

My Mammaw and Pappaw's tombstone.  They almost died exactly 22 years apart.  I can't believe my Pappaw has been gone that long.

Dad in front of his grandparents' tombstone.

More family pics.

Me and my cousin, Misty.  She is a twin with Marty.  We are only about a month apart in age.  We were always very close.  I love her to pieces.

Lincoln and Jackson.  The night of the visitation, they realized they both love the game Minecraft.  It was hilarious seeing them just 'click' because of that.

My beauty.

Misty with her daughter, Faith.

 So, during the funeral, the preacher got up and talked about Mammaw and so did a man she went to church with and knew for a long time.  My Aunt Beverly got up and shared some memories too.  They opened it up for anyone else to come and say something and before the funeral I asked my Dad if he was going to talk.  He didn't think he would be able to get the words out so he said he didn't think so. Well, he did.  When I saw him get up, I was kind of shocked.  I whipped out my phone and recorded what he said and I am SO glad I did.  I want to remember it forever.  I won't share it because it is hard to hear, but I will share what he said.  It is so special and I will treasure it always--and I want my kids to as well.

"I have a lot of memories from my mother.  Today I just want to tell you about one of them.  From the time I was born until I was in high school, end of high school really, we lived in this old house on a windy hill about a mile east of Cass and this originally was a log house and as you know, back then, the log houses were built with two large rooms and a breezeway in between.  Some people called it a dog trot and that's what that house was originally, but it'd been covered over with boards on the inside and outside and so it had two large rooms and one of those rooms was my mother and dad's bedroom and dad had made a room off to one side and it was my room.  And then the other side of the house, there was a room, a partial room, which was the kitchen and dining room.  And of course, the house was heated by a fireplace and I remember on the cold winter nights when I would go to bed my room, of course, there was no heat in that room, so they left the door open and I'd lay there before I'd go to sleep.  (Big pause)  My mother would pull the rocking chair up close to the fire and she had her Bible in both hands and she would lean over so she could catch the light of the fire and read her Bible.  This was, you know, many times I saw that.  So many things that her and my dad taught me throughout my life and some of those things like honesty, hard work, loyalty to church and family and country.  I learned later a lot of things that they taught really came from Proverbs.  You know one of those things "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he won't depart from it."  And of course there's the one about "Spare the rod and spoil the child" too.  But what you saw (choked up again) of them is what they were.  They taught me as much, really more, not from what they said but how they lived.  Those things that they taught and the standards that they set for me and my two sisters, are things that my wife and I try to teach our kids.  And I am happy to say that I think they have learned those lessons and they have those standards.  I don't think anybody has built any monuments to any great successes I might have had so far, because there really hasn't been any.  And I don't expect there will be any in the future.  What I would hope for is that my kids would pass on to their kids what was handed down from my mother and daddy through me to them.  That will be my legacy and that will be sufficient."

I love you Mammaw!!!