WORD WEDNESDAY - There IS Joy!

Four years ago today, I received the phone call...

My mom had passed away.

She was receiving a breathing treatment in the nursing home where she had lived for nearly six years...

That was a hard phone call to receive!

I had seen her on Sunday; it was Friday.

I was devastated; I couldn't understand...

How?  Why?  What happened?

While taking her breathing treatment, she asked the nurse if it was time for her pain medicine.

When the nurse returned with the medicine...

Mom had passed on to her Heavenly Home.

But...

There IS Joy!

As I look back, I remember the effort it took for her to breathe.  I remember the pain she was in from arthritis and other medical issues.  In death, she was no longer struggling to breathe; no longer in pain.

She lived life to the fullest, as long as she was able to do so.  Even during the six years she lived at the nursing home; she did not just lay back and let life pass her by.

When she first went into the nursing home, she was able to get out once in a while to go shopping, to church or even out to eat with her family; but when she just couldn't handle getting out, we brought the "out to eat" in for her; or joined her in the dining room to eat with her.

She was involved in the activities at the nursing home, including Bingo - her favorite -Scrabble and other board games; jigsaw puzzles - another favorite; or the many word games the activity team came up with.

She loved when her family would come on a Saturday afternoon to play a game of Bingo with her. 





Or sit with her for the afternoon's entertainment.

And, she was always in attendance when special entertainment was on the agenda; music, or sing-alongs, and other activities.

Yes, mom enjoyed her life to the fullest...

Until the very end.

My brother spoke at her service, sharing memories of our mom and dad dancing along with the old Lawrence Welk shows; he envisioned her dancing across heaven with my dad, her sweetheart.  I could just see my parents in each others' arms once again.

There IS Joy!

And, I think of all the other loved ones who had passed before her, and the reunions they must have had once she joined them...

Being reunited with the mother she had never met; and I wonder, did her mother know this precious one?  Read more here.

I truly feel there was joy when they "met" each other, and when she reunited with my father!

Every day may not be joy filled!  But, every day we can find some kind of joy, something that keeps us joy full!

After my mother passed, I discovered a typed document with a hand-written letter tucked between the pages.

These documents included the actual memorial words shared by the minister at my grandmother's service; and a letter dated a few days before her death on December 30, 1930...the date of my mother's birth.

Read more in my Random Journal Day post from March 6, 2015, found here.

I want to end this week's Word Wednesday with a portion of the words from this memorial service for my grandmother:

"In our sadness at parting from her in this life, we can glory in the crown of her womanhood, and pray for courage to continue to face life bravely, and touch life and live life even as she did, and leave our mark upon it, while we have our being."

My mother may not have known her mother, but she clearly faced her life bravely; she clearly touched life and lived life and left her mark upon all those around her...as did her mother.

Fredrika "Betty" Moore Harris

12/30/30 - 6/22/12

In Sadness, There IS Joy!

Even In Death, There IS Joy!


And, I can only hope and pray to live my life as she and her mother did!