October Glory
Today is the day before Thanksgiving. Normally, on this day, I am frantically planning all the details of the "event" tomorrow. We have had such extravagantly full tables of food, adding all the things I grew up with to new items that some new family members had grown up with that were just a natural part of their Thanksgiving meal.
There has always been the good stress incumbent with the entire family coming.....where will everyone sleep, will they have a good time, are we building wonderful memories for the children, can I still make dressing and gravy....on and on.
This year is different - in many ways. This year has been different.I have been working on getting my degree in history since my Emily went to college. Em is now 29 years old, happily married and living in Texas. Her leaving for school was eleven years ago. Many things, happy and sad, happen in life. In these ten years, God has blessed Ike and me with five perfect grandchildren, and a wonderful new son-in-law. My mother went to Heaven five years ago....my daddy joined her on November 3, this year. My sweet Brookie made that short trip from this earth to her Heavenly home on December 19, 2001. That is picture of her tree at the top of the page, planted in her honor. It is an October Glory maple, chosen because of the name. She was in her glory time in October, the month of Morgan Nationals where she showed her beautiful Morgan gelding, Sundance.
This past few months have been a blur of busyness. I took nine hours of school this semester so that I can graduate next May. My Daddy began to get much worse this fall. He was getting weaker and his mind was getting slower. He developed gangrene in his foot. He had to have two toes amputated.....then his leg......then he just kept getting progressively smaller and weaker, sleeping most of the time, without medication. Mercifully, the Lord took him home on November 3 and he was buried on the following Saturday, the 6th. His funeral was very honoring. Many family members were able to travel to Tulsa for his funeral. We enjoyed seeing each other. It does seem true that it takes a wedding or a funeral to have those big family reuions.
I am exhausted from the stress of school papers, tests, and other busy work required to get that "sheepskin." I don't truly know why I feel so strongly about getting this done at my age, but I do trust that God is leading and controlling my numbered days
Daddy's numbered days for earthly living ended this month. He was 87. That is a good long life. He was blessed in every way that mattered. He had good health always, he had a good job for as long as he wanted, he had a loving wife and four children. I don't know what else he could have wanted. He lived a life of honor and loved us well.
My life has been full also. I have never missed a meal, never had to sleep anywhere but in a bed, always had a roof over my head, and been given an incredible family to love and be loved by. I am counting my blessings today, feeling calm after the recent blast of life storms, waiting expectantly for my kids and grandkids to bounce through that back door, along with our grand-dog "Murphy.
We will celebrate another wonderful year of living in America together. Usually the children and we grandparents dress in costume and put on a Pilgrim story play. We shall see if they want to do that this year. One family will not be here this time. They will be missed.
We all have much to remember and appreciate about what God had done in our lives. It just takes time......and that is what we seem to neglect most often.......taking time!!!
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