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I don’t remember my Grandpa very well, just little bits and pieces, but one really prominent memory is from when I was about seven, and he came for a visit one day bringing me and my sisters big stuffed animals. Mine was a big, brown, monkey, with white plastic “tennis” shoes. I loved that monkey till I wore it out many decades later.
My Grandma died before I was even born, but I have heard stories about her. She ran a boarding house, taking care of her seven children, while doing all the washing, cooking, and cleaning for the boarders. While Grandpa was too busy trying to earn a living during the depression, taking jobs that ranged from being a street vendor to working as a butcher, to think of the long-term future, Grandma worked to instill eternal values.
She must have been fairly successful, because her legacy includes several grandchildren who have made it their lives endeavor to spread the word of God, some through books and speaking engagements, others from the pulpit, while for some it is just by what others see in our lives, as we attempt to “walk the walk.”
It is hard to imagine that I have lived longer than my grandma did, she was only 53 when the Lord took her home for a well-earned eternal rest, and I think that now she must look down on us in wonder at how far we have come, or maybe I should say traveled. From a simple farm family, scrapping by to make ends meet, this generation now consists of world travelers, pastors, missionaries, authors, computer programmers, teachers, and so many more occupations I can’t even remember them all. Most of us have been to college, and we are spread out all over the country. We never see each other, not even at the proverbial “weddings and funerals” any more. We have all lost touch, and just occasionally hear rumors of what the cousins are doing.
I think that while grandma would be pleased at how many of us have come to believe as she taught, she would be hurt at how far apart we have grown.
My grandparents strove to keep the family together, and healthy, to put food on the table, and clothes on their backs. But the most important thing in their lives was for family to just be family, to be a part of each others lives, to share good times and bad, to laugh and cry together, and to pray together. This is the same legacy I would like my grandchildren to have, what I want, and pray for, for them. Someday I plan to give my grandma a big hug and say “thank you” for all she left us.
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