When I was thinking over how best to pay tribute to Mamaw, I
was reminded of a chance encounter I had in my early twenties that really
opened my eyes to who she was.
A woman, who was the mother of a childhood friend of my
mother’s, came into the place I worked. After speaking to me, she asked who my
family was because I had a familiar look. I told her, and she said that she
thought of my grandmother every time she drove past her house because she
greatly admired how strong she was and how she had carried on her life after my
grandfather died. From that day forward, I knew “strength” as my grandmother’s
defining characteristic.
She was literally physically strong. For example, she did
her own yard work well past the age that most people stop. There was a section
of privet hedge that she frequently did battle with. She overcame a heart defect,
colon cancer, and fought her way back to being independent more times than is
believable.
Her strength of heart was unmatched. She faced more tragedy
and loss than most of us could bear. Even in the face of being widowed so
early, she picked up and carried on. I don’t think I ever saw her cry, not
because she didn’t, but because she didn’t cry in front of the children. She
always wanted to be strong for us.
She was a strong role model. She was not only the picture of
a 50’s housewife, but she was also a working mother. She held various jobs over
the years, and most probably remember her work in the Andrew Jackson school
cafeteria because her rolls were amazing, but the one that made an impression
on me was that when Papaw got his real estate license so he could sell houses
part time, she got her’s too so that she could support his work and run things
while he was at his other job. All of that with three kids to take care, and a
hot dinner on the table every night. Then when my parents started dating, she
added my dad in as her fourth kid, showing him what it was like to be a loving
parent. It changed the course of his life and by extension, my own.
Most importantly, she had strength of faith. Isaiah 40:31
says, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall
mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall
walk, and not faint.”
Her unwavering faith and trust in God touched us all in one
way or another. When many would have sat down, overwhelmed by the changes life
had thrown at them, she relied on God to help her stand knowing that He would
see her through whatever came next. It is the reason we can all have peace
today. We can trust that she rests with the Lord no longer having to be strong.
I will remember how she took me to the movies and made me
bacon and French toast for breakfast. How she always sat at the kids table, and
how she could have a full Sunday dinner on the table in the time it took the
rest of us to change out of our church clothes. I still haven’t figured that
one out. Most of all I will remember her strength and try to live up to the
standard she set for being a Rixie.
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