What's Left

There in one picture are two of the most beautiful women I have ever known. One I had the incredible blessing of marrying (yes, a little later after this was taken), and the other, the absolute greatest mother in love anyone could ever have.

Actually met the future mother in love many years before I met my wife. She was working at Greene's propane in Macon during the period when my daddy would take his boys into town to get the tanks refilled. We were living in a submarine - okay a trailer - 10 ft wide by 55 feet long - as my father chased a dream of having his own bit of land. For a sharecropper's son, that was a big dream. But it put a financial strain on us, so I can't imagine Dot's initial impression of what would become part of the family was favorable. I do know she was kind. In fact that's all I remember about those trips to Greene's- the mystery of propane tank filling, and that lady in the office who my father thought was real pretty and who I just knew as kind to little boys.

Roll forward a few years to a night that would begin a life change for me as I meet her again in her home. Was invited there to play some board games. She welcomed me warmly and pointed me in the right direction. That wouldn't be the last time she did either of those.

I enjoyed 35 years of her company on the journey of love called marriage I have been blessed to have with her daughter. She loved her family and lived a life of faith. Being the wife of a traveling salesman meant that she did more than her share most of the time. She did it well, as a wonderful mom raising three boys and a girl and being an awesome grandmother and great grandmother.

All along the way she touched people's lives with her kindness, compassion, femininity, and grace. Beautiful inside and out. I've never heard anyone talk about Dot with anything other than love and admiration. Think about that for a minute, will you? Live 83 years and see if you can be remembered as she will be.

And now she is gone from this life and alive in the next. To say she is missed is obviously an understatement. It hurts that she is gone from us, even though we know she lives - whole and full of joy in heaven.

So what's left?

An incredible legacy.

A life invested in her family.

A life example of faith lived out through the everyday.

A reason to thank God for the privilege of knowing her, of loving and being loved by her.