Last Words

Today on the way to work, on the radio, the hosts were talking about famous last words. The conversation brought to mind my grandmother's death. It has been over 8 years, and the thought does not come to mind as often as it use to, but today a whole slue of memories an emotions came rushing back. Allow me to share...

My mom and dad cared for my grandma in their home the last half year of her 98 years here with us. Her lack of eating and quick decline made it evident that she had mede the choice to give up on life and prepare to meet God. I remember sitting in the living room with her and in a brief conversation asking how she was feeling about death...was she scared, sad, happy, anxious? I don't remember the exact answer, but I do remember feeling assured that she was ready.

I remember also that one day in August she did not get out of bed as usual. Things had changed. I was going to a meeting at church with my parents and stopped by her bed. I told her how much I had liked her for my grandma, I was so lucky to be her only grandchild, and shared how much I loved her. She sleepily said the expected similar things in return, but the words that stick in my memory the most were those she spoke when we were leaving the room. She asked quickly before we walked out, in a more urgent way, "pray for me". The request brought me a unsettled feeling.

We did pray for her that night with our group at church. When I returned home I prayed for her with my children. The boys were eight and six at the time so I let them know that she was doing worse than the days before. Connor nestled back under his covers and went to sleep, but Kevin wanted to go see her. I struggled with the decision of getting my sleepy little boy out of bed at 10pm to go give great grandma a hug, couldn't it wait until morning, but okay.

So I brought him to her bedside in his little pajamas and he simply leaned in and gave her a hug and a kiss. It was a two minute visit, but she and he were peaceful and happy in that moment the urgency was gone.

We went home, had a good night sleep, and awoke to a phone call in the morning from my mom. Grandma had died in her sleep. We had the intimate blessing of being with her so close to that moment and had said our last words.

I'd like to share with you the second part of my story...today at work the elderly peep that I take care of really wanted to go to noon mass. That is an unusual request for her. So we went to Old Saint Mary's and discovered it was a holy day. The feast of All Saints.

The priest during the homily talked about how we are blessed with these great people who inspire our faith by the way they lived, and have now in their passing been called saints. He went on to say that we have our own personal saints...grandparents, parents, teachers, coworkers, who have inspired us to grow in our faith, to be better people. So we took a moment of silence to recognize those individuals and creating our own litany of saints.

So I prayed to my grandma...Saint Susan pray for me.

Funny how the day all tied together, I was ment to think about her today, and pray to her today. I miss her today! That is why I wanted to share this. I invite you to pray for those people who are the saints in your life. And I thank you for stopping by my blog.