Portrait of the Past...Thanksgiving 2007

I usually post about the current happenings in our lives. Today I am taking us back almost a year. You see it will soon be five months since my incredible grandmother flew very unexpectedly and suddenly into the arms of Jesus and while I know that she was very ready to make that flight, those of us left behind were not ready to lose her. Her death has been something that I have struggled to accept these past months and as our first Thanksgiving and Christmas approach without her it has become harder.
I recently received my e-vite to Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt’s home. We’ve celebrated Thanksgiving there for many years now. It’s a pot luck Thanksgiving, with everyone bringing our specialties and us winding up with enough food to feed a small army. Every year in her e-vite, my aunt includes a list of what everyone brought the previous year. Listed there with everyone else was Mama Lorene (Grandma to me)—mustard greens and cracklin cornbread. And it reminds me how we will never taste Grandma’s specialties again and the tears start to flow again. However, my aunt put it very well when she said, “Yes, we will miss her and her contagious laughter but we all know she will be us in spirit and laughing right along with us”.
Last year Grandma was very happy and excited to meet her newest great grand child. Grandma loved babies!!! She loved holding them and cuddling them, and always hated it when they got too big for her to hold any more. This year she will be sorely missed, and I am sure that we will shed a few tears as we remember Thanksgivings from the past. But we will also know that Grandma is right there with us, laughing with us, and watching over us always.