Mamommy

Today would have been my grandmother’s birthday, my dad’s mom, who we called Mamommy. She died a few years ago at age 97, and I gave a eulogy at her funeral. Those who know me know that standing up in front of a group of people and speaking is definitely not my thing, but this was something I wanted and felt like I needed to do. Here is what I said:
-
My grandmother, Grace Wheeler Cobb Jeter, has always been a part of my life. I’m finding it hard to believe that she’s not here anymore.
-
When I was a child we often had family gatherings at her house. She had a big seashell in her front hallway that everyone would blow like a horn when they came in the door. Her house always smelled of good food, including the best homemade rolls I have ever tasted. We would gather around her large dining room table and enjoy food and conversation and later, with full stomachs, retire to the living room for more family togetherness.
-
When I was older I would often go stay at her house for a week in the summer. We would draw and paint together, and I was proud when she hung my artwork up with my cousins’ on the wall in the back porch room off her kitchen. I also enjoyed walking to the town square to shop with her and sitting in the swing on her porch in the evenings while she told me about days long past. She took me to church with her, where she taught 1st and 2nd grade Sunday school for many years. Every night we had devotions together, and then she would kneel beside her bed to pray before going to sleep.
-
It was very hard on her when she became disabled and had to give up the home she had lived in her entire life, but she made the best of it. It was always good to see the way she would light up whenever anyone came to visit her in the nursing home.
-
During the last few years her health declined, and she could no longer communicate effectively. When we came to see her, there wasn’t much to say, but we would read to her from the Bible. She would close her eyes and listen peacefully, always seeming to want to hear more when it was over. One of her favorite passages was the 23rd Psalm:

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul;
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

-
Forever has now begun for my grandmother, and I believe that today she is in the house of the Lord, in heaven, being joyfully reunited with her parents, siblings, her husband, her daughter Mary Jane, and other loved ones. I have no doubt that she believed in Christ as her Savior, and during her final years I saw a peace in her in spite of her suffering that could only come from knowing that she would soon be with God.
-
My grandmother died this week, but she leaves behind a legacy to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as the many others who loved her. She leaves us with memories of happy childhoods that she was very much a part of. She leaves with stories that we will never forget and a godly character for us to imitate. Though she is gone from us physically, those of us who knew and loved her have the privilege of carrying a part of her with us for the rest of our lives and to pass it on to generations to come.