Friday, October 3, 2008

Vesta Lorraine Golden Timmons

Yesterday, I attended my grandmother's funeral, and while it was a celebration of her coronation in meeting her Savior in heaven it was still sad. I heard stories about my grandparents I hadn't heard before.

I had heard how my grandma, great aunt and great grandma were abandoned by my great grandfather to fend for themselves in a little house in the woods of Logansport, how my great grandma tried to bring in a harvest and couldn't make a go of it, how the three of them hiked through the woods and along the road until a family member picked them up and took them into Shreveport where they used newspapers to cover up and slept in vacant buildings. One thing I hadn't heard is how when my grandparents were first married my grandparents were first married, he left to go down South looking for a job and there were times when he couldn't find work, but wash dishes just to get something to eat. My grandparents knew what it meant to be hungry, they knew what it meant to be in want. After my grandather became a conductor on the train, the hobos who would jump off the trains and found their way to my grandparents' back door asking for food, were given whatever my grandmother had. It didn't matter how early my grandfather got up to go to work or to go hunting, grandma got up and made a breakfast for them all. And when my uncle Harold was fighting in Vientam, she was became overwhelmed and didn't want grandaddy to see her cry, so she went to the boys' room opened the closet and stared while crying. She said God gave her the song "God is Faithful," and it gave her such peace that she could go on.

I have been blessed to have such a lady as a role model in my life. She always said, "If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all." If everyone in the world could embrace that and incorporated into their every day life the world would be a much better life.

1 comment:

LeeBird3 said...

I feel your pain, my friend. I still miss my Granny Maxwell every day. Her simple ways always gave me so much comfort and perspective. At her funeral, I heard stories I had never heard before. We are truly blessed to have had women from that generation in our lives. They don't make them like that anymore.

Love you.