Aunt Frieda
Aunt Frieda left about 10 am this morning (Louisiana time).
Her family was with her.
Eddie asked that I call Lisa and have her go to Aunt Ruth's to tell here so she didn't hear by phone and so she didn't have to be alone when she heard the news. Lisa went immediately.
They will have services for her. Eddie suggested we have a memorial service for her here. We will plan something for when Toby and Denice and the kids come out in May. Maybe the Galion families would like to do something there with Aunt Ruth and maybe, just maybe Jerren will be able to leave the state by then and be with us, too. Larry, Rhonda and family will participate with us.
I am so sad for us and so happy for her.
I think Aunt Frieda left being able to truthfully say: "I have fought the good fight. I have completed the race. I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7 -- (although she would have never actually said those words herself.)
Her effect on my life was powerful and I will miss her - but I will never forget her.
More info when I get it .. In the meantime, enjoy the photo pages I put together last time I visited her. The pages also tell her birth story as mom wrote it. There are more links to photos on the left.
Cards for the family
Eddie's address is: 1000 Scarpengo Road, Shreveport, LA 71101 if you want to send cards to them. He'll be sure to pass it on.
Comfort from our mother's death
Lisa shared a reading of this type with us moments after mom left.
The Ship
I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails in the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, there she goes!”
Gone Where? Gone from my sight… that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There she goes!,” there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”- Henry Jackson van Dyke (1852-1933)