Saying Goodbye...

This past week we said goodbye to my Grandma and if you are like me goodbyes are always hard, even when you know that you are going to see that person again in just a few weeks or months.  I've been like this since I can remember.  I think I cried every time I left home to head back to college, even though I enjoyed college, and I still cry most of the time when I leave my family up in Oregon to come home, even though I'm happy to be home in my own bed and with my kids back in their own routines.  This said when the moments come that I have to say goodbye for this lifetime it's so terribly hard, as I'm sure it is for everyone. 

I've found that each goodbye is different and for me there was special blessing in the time I had to say goodbye to my Grandma.  In the past when I have said goodbye to ones I've loved it has been at the very end of their life and in situations where they have been unable to talk with me about what was ahead.  I knew what they believed and so could remind myself in those last moments of the promise of eternal life and being finally free from sadness and suffering to praise the Lord Jesus Christ for all of eternity, but this good bye was unique in that my Grandma was able to speak these truths to me herself.  I went into my last time with her desiring to offer her comfort and yet walked away feeling like she had done just that for me, and as a result I think have a new understanding of what a gift our faith is.  It was so profound to me to be able to see someone in the last days of their life so confidently waiting to walk from this life to the next, all the while, helping those of us who were about to be left behind to do the same. 

I will never forget the confidence with which she answered my timid question, "Are you ready?" There was no hesitation in her rely "yes."  What a precious gift it was to me to get to experience the peaceful confidence of a saint about to go home, excited to be reunited with the many who had gone before her, and most of all to finally meet her Savior.  I don't know if I've ever meet a braver or stronger woman.  She battled cancer 3 times, lived a life with many inconveniences because of the scars it left, and she spent the last months of her life with seemingly no bitterness at it's return. 

She was the same Grandma I've always loved up until the end.  In fact, she reminded me even on our very last visit to make sure we brought something healthy for Grandpa to eat and spent the first part of our time together asking questions about little things I'd told her in previous conversations.  Don't know why I was so surprised she had remembered. :) Anyway, I'm so thankful for her life, her testimony, and her love for my Grandpa and each of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. 

On April 16th Grandma went home to be with the Lord. Grandma, you will be missed here but we look forward to seeing you again with a new and healthy body.