Sunset Over Lake Eufaula by Frances Robson

Good evening. Ya'll come on in and sit with us for a spell. We've had a right long day and I am a tad tired and ready for a rest. In fact it has been a long week filled with difficulties for our friends. You know when your friends hurt you do too and when there is joy we rejoice together. That's what friends are for.

The week began with the news that some of our friends had lost their house to a fire. It was a home they had built much of it themselves and it had many built-ins and special features they had planned and constructed. They had just built a beautiful sleigh bed and were sleeping it for the first time and a ceiling fan on the back porch caught fire and it spread through the attic and they lost their home and much of what was in it.

Thank our good Father, there was only 1 child at home and they all got out safely and you can replace things but not lives. I can't imagine loosing a home to a fire, flood or anything else and our church family and their friends and neighbors are helping all we can. In fact our church is organizing a clean-up day for Saturday for us to find those things that are not burned, wash and clean them and box them up until they can rebuild. I know we will have many people there and it is so good to be able to help this good family for I know they would do the same.

One of our friends had a hip replacement surgery and is doing well but that is painful. I helped nurse mama when she had one and it is not fun. I remember the next morning after the surgery the little physical therapy man came striding in and said, "Mrs. Polk, it's time to get up and walk down the hall." Don't think I will ever forget that look mama gave him and if it could have killed, he would be a dead man. The best I remember she looked at him and told him she had just had a hip replaced and wasn't going to get up.

Well you know these hospital types at times like these get this patient look on their faces, roll their eyes and begin to treat you like an imbecile. They start saying things like yes we can, we can walk, we can do this and we can do that and you want to tell them "we" didn't have our hips chopped out and a metal chunk put in there just "I." There was no "we" to it. I'm pretty sure if mama didn't say it she was thinking it.

Now they don't give up and go back to their little office and mama finally sat up on the side of bed, stood up and took a few steps and then she told him she was getting back in bed and she did. I was applauding her spunk but by the afternoon she had made up her mind to get on with the walking bit for she realized the sooner she walked down that hall, the sooner we would be headed back to Canton Bend and her house and her bed. It didn't take but a couple of days and she was ready to head to the house. She was one brave, hard headed and lovely lady.

I chose the picture at the beginning of the posting for a reason. Today we had the funeral to celebrate the life of a dear friend and she entered the sunset of this life and began the next stage of her eternal life with our dear, Heavenly Father. She took that last breath here on Monday and took her next breath in her new and perfect body in Heaven. What joy for now she can talk without a problem, walk, run, and continue to laugh just like she did here. Her laugh would begin with a little infectious giggle and then it would break out. Loved her laugh.

She had been sick for 10 years due to a heart problem and a stroke but always said "doing good" when you asked her how she felt. Our pastor summed up her life today when he called her an "encourager" for she truly was. He said when he had a bad day he would drop by their home for a visit and even though she was frail in body she always encouraged and love him and he would leave feeling better. Each time she came to church, which was always if she felt well, she would give him a tight hug and an "I love you" on her way out. This was Carolyn - always a hug and an "I love you." It came from her heart and you knew absolutely that she meant it.

Many footprints have been left in the sands of time by this sweet lady. She left a beloved husband, children and grandchildren who are all better people for having a mama like her. She loved them with all her heart and called them her "babies" even though they are far beyond that stage. She was a mother to them and all the other children who lived around her or they brought home with them. Our daughter, Becky, has wonderful memories of "Miss Carolyn" from her early years and she is one among a great many who passed through the doors of her home. She was a gracious, kind and sweet lady.

She also left the footprints of beautiful drapes, quilts, bedspreads, cushions and many other lovely things she made. She was an amazing seamstress and many homes in this area are lovelier because of her workmanship. Pieces of material became like artist's paints in her hands as she cut and sewed them into pieces of art which graced homes and made them beautiful. What a wonderful legacy to leave.

Carolyn, roommate from a mission trip, good friend, and Christian sister, I will miss you but I thank God we had this time and I wait with anticipation for our grand and glorious reunion at the gates of Heaven. Oh what rejoicing that will be!

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

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