This morning, I got a call from my sister in Mesa, Arizona telling me Mom had passed at 7:41 the previous evening. She passed quietly after several hours of non-responsiveness.
It would be impossible to condense all that she was in anything short of a literary tome of great heft.
Born in May of 1920 to Irish immigrant parents, she was the first in her family to graduate from college. Her dad was a carpenter. Her mom spent a short time as a nurse, but most of her life was spent as a housewife.
Mom had a single brother, a Marine, who was sniper-shot and killed in the Pacific during WWII.
Mom became a teacher, so she was always home whenever we kids were home.
Though she was never a great cook (she was Irish, for goodness sake) she always managed to stretch the food budget so we never once went hungry--even when money was in very short supply.
In her later years, she suffered from Alzheimer's and got to the point some years back where she no longer remembered who I was. It got to the point where she would forget where the fork should end up and food would hover between plate and mouth. The caregivers where she resided would quickly step up with the necessary assistance.
I knew it was coming, and rejoice that she is finally at home with the Lord. She was a woman of great faith and had committed more Scripture to memory than most preachers.
Now, that frail, used-up body has been traded-in for perfection, and she is making the rounds of so many generations of family and her friends who went on before.
And, I know we shouldn't second-guess God, but I wonder why this happened a week after my own major surgery. I will not even be able to make the funeral since it will be at least two more weeks before I can fly.
She was a wonderful Mom to me and to my sister. She was a faithful wife for nearly 70 years to her husband, my Dad. And, she is finally at peace.
Crusader Rabbit