mildred lehr crownover bradford
a week ago today i lost my
grandmother: the world is a little less
sweet, a lot less funny and infinitely less righteous! she was the strongest person i’ve ever known. she
lost her mother at 4, moved around from family member to family member as her
father worked to support his second wife and his 6 children. she married and had 5 children of her own – 2
of whom she outlived. it’s not natural to outlive your children but she told me
that she just figured that’s the way life was: young people die before their time and we have
to go on. she outlived my grandfather,
her henry, by 17 years. she helped raise
all 7 of her grandchildren and loved her 8 great-grandchildren beyond compare!
she believed in God above all
else and was comforted by His Word and His love to an extent that i will aspire
to my entire life. she could quote scripture
as well as she could the children’s rhymes she learned as a child. even in her
96th year she quoted rhymes and poems we had never heard her
say. it was amazing. she was amazing!
i never visited that she didn’t
make me laugh and ask me to “stay all night” with her though i had a home, at
times, less than 5 miles away. she loved
peanuts and chocolate and peanuts covered in chocolate more than any food save
potato chips. she sang hymns while she
cooked, did dishes, ironed the sheets, etc.
if she had never done anything to remember except the way she treated
daddy it would be enough. She never ate
a meal that she didn’t say, “did buddy (joe) get enough to eat?,” he was never out of her sight that she didn’t
wonder, “where’s buddy?” “is buddy here?” “did buddy leave?” he didn’t.
he was there for the last 15 years of her life. he was with her as she took her last breath. and he was by my side as i cried and cried and
cried.
i will miss her all my life. she was the world to me. i praise God for her
96 faithful years.
grace and peace