MY GRANDMA…..

This is what I said at my Grandma Delk’s funeral back in June 2010. I thought I would share this it is very personal to me and tells much about my very much loved Grandma. She passed away on June 26 early in the morning. Not long after I had left her side in the hospital because the room was so very very cold I could not stay by her side even wrapped in blankets (oddly the nurses said the room was not cold to them). Her body failed her but not her mind….She lacked 34 days being 91 years old.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As I studied Grandma’s hands  in the hospital …I got to thinking about her life and what she meant to me. The influence she and pap had on my life and how she had touched so many people even while sick in the hospital with her kindness and sweetness of spirit.

Grandma was a strong woman, smart and industrious, in her life on the farm. Strong in character and spirit. Wise beyond words . Maybe for the last 35 years hard of hearing… but she knew things you would swear she could never have heard…especially at the last. I was there on Monday evening the 21st and she said to me, “boy the birds sure are singing today aren’t they?” I said, “you can hear the birds singing and she said sure!”

Grandma was simple in her ways……. not fancy …..but honest and true and steady always…………. Well she could get scared (like the time I dropped a  rubber snake  in her lap as I told her I loved her …she flogged me good for that and in front of everybody.  Including cousin William.)  I remember the time the convict escaped and  she saw him in the dairy barn… Grandpa ,and the boys were working on our house across the field around the road 3 miles. She sent me and Grandma Nancy across the woods to hide and she rang the bell (no cell phones then) or phones of any kind, and the men folk came home. No one was hurt… and she was afraid !!!  She did all the right things and kept us safe.

I thought about the long, hot summers and slow endless days of gardening, stringing beans, shucking corn, picking berries, canning and freezing,  jelly-making. Thoughts of trips to Denton to Pickets and the Dime Store and Feed Store. I wonder how many beans she strung?  She had said to me, a couple weeks ago, that she hoped she would be able to string some beans this summer….

The lessons in life she taught me by doing and saying….were so many.  One year we were making apple cider and the apples were scarce, and I so love frozen cider, but every time some one came into Richard’s Shop, she would hand out a ½ gallon.  This happened too many times for me… and I said, “You’re  giving all my cider away!”  She looked at my face and said, ”Well you are suppose to give till it hurts!” I wailed, “It hurts!!!!”

If you came to her house.. She always asked, “Are you hungry? Can i get you anything to eat?” My last trip, I took two cucumbers Uncle Dempsey had brought and she shared her fresh picked jar with me.  It was so good and she seemed so pleased to have been able to do that. On Wednesday, I sat at my job outside looking at the mountains and had the cucumbers with my lunch and thought how sweet it was and about my Grandma…oh…
she was a wonderful cook.. Her chicken pies famous, persimmon pudding, and homemade cakes with chocolate and caramel icing. Green beans with corn…I could go on and on about her cooking…

Grandma loved Astor Delk in life and death …he was always with her. She was his… and he was hers. What a love she had for him!!!! And he for her. (not like some silly romance novel…) but real love ..the steady, there always, no question kind !!! Shoot, she went to horse sales and sat for 8 hours at a time with him and trust me she had no interest in horses!! It is to be likely,,,the greatest love any two people.. I will ever know… to have for each other.  I cannot begin to imagine. Her happiness and completeness…of being with him again in heaven ..and with all her loved ones.

The influence…this wonderful…kind…loving…woman had on so many people…is amazing to me.  She said at Easter…she and Astor started as two people and had become one… and looked around her as we were gathered to eat at her table again.  There were  3 of her sons Dempsey, Henry, and Richard, 7 of her grand children, their families and 11 of her great grand children in attendance.

Any good…or kindness…that might reside in me…is there in large part because of her quiet, steady, love and influence over me in my life…and I am thankful…for her…and to have been her granddaughter…and for the good Lord for letting her stay here with us this long.  What a blessing!

I believe …that as our loved ones are taken from this life to the next …that along with them a part of our heart goes too… so when our time comes… we don’t mind leaving here. Guess a big part of Grandmas heart.. was all ready in heaven… she was “ready” as we all know.

She had told me years ago as a girl that she had asked Jesus into her heart. She could not remember exactly the moment, but that he had always been there. It seems that “he” had been the influence and guide to her life all theses years.  How about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!