Sweet Miss Edith.

Two years ago today, we lost one of the most beautiful souls, Miss Edith.

I am so so so blessed to have known her. She brought so much light into my life and to everyone around her. Regardless of what was going on in her life, good or bad, she trusted God through it all and pushed through. She was such an amazing woman and such a genuine person and I am so happy I got the chance to be close to her.

Memories of her flooded my mind today, as they do everyday, but today especially.

My apologies if this seems jumbled, I'm just going to list some memories and talk about each of them. I think one of the best ways to remember people is to sit down and talk about memories of them. So picture this as us sitting on a couch and laughing about old memories. Make you a cup of hot chocolate and break out the blankets!

Some of my earliest memories of Miss Edith were when I was in Vacation Bible School. Miss Edith always did the crafts. I didn't really know her then. I remember sitting by her one night and I was completely quiet because I didn't really know who she was. (I was extremely shy when I was young, still am but not as bad, haha!) She always looked so happy making the crafts and I cherish those memories everyday.

We'd often go visit her during youth group since she lived so close to the church. I have memories of walking to her house with my youth group, I still didn't really know her all that much, but I still enjoyed sitting in her little living room. I also remember how we'd always go by her house on the Fall Festival hay ride. She'd always be standing on her porch with her walker, waving at us as we went by.

My mom started going over to her house a lot and taking care of her. That's when I started getting closer to her. I'd go over to her house with my mom and sit on the couch while she and mom talked. Most of the time I sat quietly and looked around at all of her pictures and trinkets. She had so many things, but you could tell each thing had a specific place and meant something to her. I still remember how everything was set up in her house. Especially when she had her Christmas tree out. She loved that tree so much!

One day for a class assignment, I had to interview an elderly person and ask them about their life. I thought of Miss Edith immediately. I went over to her house, notebook and pen in hand and sat down to interview her. I was still a little scared to ask someone so many questions about their personal life. I remember how thrilled she was that I wanted to know about her. I remember the way she looked at me while I asked questions. She was intently listening and answering in paragraphs. I learned so much about her. She had been through so much, but still was so happy and strong. My admiration for her grew immensely that day. I'll never forget that moment.

Another time when we went to her house, we looked at her collection of Mickey Mouse watches. She adored Mickey Mouse. She had a plastic tub full of different Mickey watches. She let my sister, mom, and me pick one. I was so shocked that she would let us just have one of her watches that she had collected.

Miss Edith's eventually had to be moved into a nursing home. We visited her so much. I think mom went about every single day and I tagged along a few times a week after school. One of the first times I went we had brought her a pizza to eat. Mom had to go get something so it was just Miss Edith and me in the room. We ate pizza together and watched some nature show. I have so many memories of us bringing her food, haha! She loved mashed potatoes from KFC. I never realized you could order just mashed potatoes from KFC until that day! She loved when she was brought food and didn't have to eat the nursing home food. She was a character!

Not long after my 16th birthday, I had my permit and had never driven anywhere that was more than 5 minutes away. Mom let me drive to see Miss Edith, which was about a 15 or so minute drive. I parked my car right in front of her window because she had never seen it before. She loved it!

Once in the nursing home they were having a jewelry sale in the lobby. We wheeled Miss Edith out so she could look at everything. (She looooved jewelry.) She saw me looking at a bracelet and told me, "get that so it matches your Weird Al!" (I had a Weird Al tshirt on and the bracelet went perfect with it.) Oh! I forgot to mention, one of the times when I went to visit her at her house was after I had saw Weird Al in concert. Mom was telling her about it and she had never heard of him. We didn't really think too much about it. Then mom went back to her house one day while she was at the nursing home and found a little piece of paper with "Weird Al" written on it. She had written his name down to remember it. It warms my heart every time I think about it. Just little gestures like that show how much she cared about people.

I'm so happy I got to spend her last birthday with her. We got her pizza and root beer, and ate outside of the nursing home. I think we all knew she'd be gone soon, but we didn't let that thought cross our minds in that moment. We all had such a good time being together. I wouldn't trade those moments for anything.

I remember so vividly the day we heard she had passed. I remember being sad but I don't think it hit me until church the following Sunday. I don't even remember what was said to start the tears, all I remember is that I kept crying and couldn't stop. She had almost felt like a fourth grandmother to me. (I actually have 3 grandmothers, before you think I'm bad at math haha!)

As strange as it sounds, her funeral was one of my favorite memories. All of us close to her wore something with Mickey Mouse on it. Her favorite flowers were there. Her pictures were there. The funeral was in our church. I know she loved it. She was smiling from heaven. There were sad tears, happy tears, memories shared, and so many hugs that night. It was a beautiful night of remembrance. I have more happy memories from it than sad. I think that's a good thing. I don't get sad thinking about it, I feel at peace from it.

There are times that I wish that she could still be here, seeing me go through college and telling her about everything. But I know that she is watching over me now, she's been with me this whole time. She is one of my biggest inspirations. I'm so happy she's with her son and husband again. I know she's so happy and that makes me happy.

God gained a beautiful angel, and I can't wait to see her again.

October 1924- November 2012

 

 

-Rachel xx