I believe that someday you will find, as I have, that looking ahead to
the events of life makes time seem abundant and elastic. However, looking
behind at the course of your life will render time brief and all to quickly
dissipated. On January 10th your Great Grandmother Anne Harding
slipped from her earthly life to her eternal one, she went to join her husband
Russell, who passed away before either of you were born. I felt grief as now
this world is without her, but I felt joy as well, because I was able to say
goodbye, because she had lived a long and blessed life, and mostly because I
know without doubt she is with my Grandfather, and our Lord.
Your Great Grandmother was born in Michigan, to parents from Germany and
Austria. I was told her mother married around 15 years of age, her father
worked the land as a farmer. She spoke fondly of parts of her childhood, many
times of a German Shepheard that was her constant companion. She met her
husband on a train, I don’t know where she was going but he was on his way to
the Pacific theater to take part in World War II. I know he asked to sit next
to her, to which she replied “no”, not deterred he asked to write her while he
was away, and he did, for 3 years. When he returned they were married, and they
never separated again.
I found during the funeral that Anne fell in love with the west during a
visit here, and quickly convinced my Grandfather to re-locate the family. I am
not sure that he ever said no to her. I also learned that she was responsible
for your Grandfathers side of the family coming to know the Lord, and
eventually my father leading me to the Lord. I was struck by the way her
decisions had shaped my life in ways I only now am realizing the weight of.
So often in the age in which I live the focus is on the present, the
immediacy of our needs and satiation of our desires. We give little thought to
the notion that we are leading not only our lives, but the generations that
will follow down the roads we are choosing. If I plan and act poorly you and
your children’s children may suffer for it. If I act wisely and prudently
generations may flourish long after I am gone. Men and women work to leave
legacies in stone and steel, and yet the greatest one we will have will not be
lifeless and stationary, but living breathing testaments to our time on earth.
In the final week of my Grandmas life I sat by her bedside. She was
frail, but still understood what was going on. She told me she was tired, and
she was ready to go to heaven. I recalled memories of my childhood with her,
recalling all the great days we had spent, and how she had shaped my life. I
reassured her of my love, of how proud I was of her, and how great of a
grandmother she had been to me. She was proud of me as well, of my life and of
the family I have. I am so happy she got to meet and love both of you. I asked
her if she had slept well, and had any good dreams. She told me she had dreamt
she was with her husband Russell, who died 12 years before, and that she did
not want to wake up from that dream. I believe on the night she left us he was
there to bring her home.
I will love each of you my entire life, my love for you requires not
effort, it flows from me and through me. Not all love is like that, my love for
your mother requires work, requires me to let go of my selfish desires, to lay
my life down for her- her love for me most assuredly requires a great deal
more. One thing my Grandparents taught
me, and that always made me proud of them, was that two people can love one
another their entire lives. They can cease to exist singularly; I cannot think
of one of them without the other. I hope someday you will see your mother and I
in that light, that I will leave that example for you to follow if nothing
else. Life is only worth living because of love, Gods Love, and your love for
others. Without Love life has no meaning, no purpose, no redemption.
I see my Grandmother still. I feel her comfort climbing into a warm cabin
bed early in the morning to cuddle, I taste the meals she worked so hard on for
others to enjoy, I hear her voice longing to know of my life and encouraging
me, I see her and my Grandfather embracing and calling to each other. Your
lineage is up to you, dependent on the choices you make and the
responsibilities you decide to shoulder or shirk. You have the strength of
generations behind you, and in your blood flowing through you. Remember you do
not walk alone, and that the roads you choose you will be choosing for others
you may never live to know.
I love you both so much. I have been traveling for work all week long,
and cant wait to be home!
