The Eternal Perspective

On April 17, 2013 Grandma Mary passed on. I think for most of us it was a good, ok thing to see her go. It's never quite easy to say good bye, but it was her time, and she is now much happier where she resides. I imagine she had quite a joyous reunion with loved ones who were waiting to welcome her back.

I felt like it was an interesting build up for me, personally, to her passing. In one of my book groups I read "Our Town" by Thorton Wilder. In the final act a young mother passes away and the scene is told from the view of those who have already passed on. From the words written and the conversations that ensued, I gained a perspective of our life on earth as it falls into place with our life in the eternities. For now our sight is limited and when we see one whom we love so dearly slip out of this world, our hearts ache and we miss them terribly. But we must remember that this life is not the end. A great continuation is beginning for that individual! Maybe some of our aching comes from our desire to be with them and progress on beyond this frail existence.

Grandma was spunky but stern. I often think of her telling me to put my shoes and stockin's on. She would do little dances and wave with gusto when we left her house. She fed all of us thousands of cinnamon graham crackers. I remember trying to suck on it slowly on the way home to make it last the entire 20 minute ride from her house to our house. I will never forget the time Jacob and I were climbing over the backs of her and Grandpa's sitting chairs and tore the doilies off that she used to have pinned to them...I say used to because we after we did that we never saw those doilies again. I remember the sweatshirts she always had stored in her closet for us to wear if the canyon wind was blowing cold at night. They were navy blue and smelled just like her. We had endless slurpees and coffee runs to 7 Eleven. She even let Porter try coffee once. She would mimic Claire's own pronunciation of her name. I don't remember it exactly but I think Claire omitted the L and would kind of let the r flair a bit. Grandma loved the way Claire said "Claire". We went through a few years of endless teasing about me getting the Jeep that I affectionately named Ernie. It didn't happen, but the jest was fun. We gardened together, cleaned her levelers together, and sat on her patio together. She loved her flowers, her hanging pots, poppies, and irises. She always had petunias in the rock bed made as a memorial to Uncle Kelly. She watered them so carefully, just so. She loved her golf. She loved her shorts. She stood with her heels together and her toes pointed outwards with her hands in her pockets. Her body language spoke volumes. She would wiggle her shoulder just so with a little smile. She would twist her hips and swing her arms. She was charismatic. She didn't like to get wet in the water fights but she was always good for a laugh! She cared for those around her, especially Grandma Doran. She would read to her, paint her nails, play games with her. She served in the temple and was amazed at the number of brides that would come through during the summer! She taught Relief Society though it gave her great grief. She played Free Cell...probably the only thing she ever did on the computer...regularly. She bought me work books and had a box just for us during our visits full of paper and markers and crayons. I remember the markers were those "bold" colors, the ones that weren't quite real colors in my opinion. But they were still markers. She was always so pleased with our successes and so supportive of our nonsuccesses (cough cough piano). She loved us. She was "delighted". Her food was "bodacious". And she was  "just wonderful"!

I don't remember a lot of what our conversations entailed, but she was always there. I am grateful I knew her and that I have her legacy to follow, for she was a great woman.

So though I miss Grandma. And I have missed her for quite some time because she has not been quite herself for awhile. I know that I will see her again. I know that because of the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ and the incomprehensible Atonement that He performed, we will be with our families forever, in a perfect state. We will have joy that we can only dream of now.

There is a great work going on. It is far greater than ourselves. We are stretching from eternity to eternity and we have the privilege to be a part of it. We have only small glimpses of where we came from, but I am sure we were great and it is up to us now to continue that greatness until we return to when we remember.