While the dew is still on the roses

My sister-in-law, Audra's, mama passed away suddenly Saturday morning.  Her memorial service was today and I went with Mama and we met Ami and Brian at the church and sat together.  It was a very beautiful service, with song and memories, laughter and tears.  Miss Brenda was a wonderful woman, wife, mother and grandma.  She loved her Jesus, first and foremost, her husband of 47 years, her three girls, her six grandchildren (and number seven's on the way!), her family, her friends and her flower beds.  I loved the vision the girls gave of their mama working in her garden barefooted.  A day can't get much better than that in my opinion.

Miss Brenda was such a dedicated and loving Nana to my niece and nephew, my babies, Jessica and Christopher.  I remember birthdays that looked like Christmas morning and Christmas mornings that looked like Santa's workshop had exploded in the living room.  She was head over heels in love with her grandchildren.

In her memorial, there was this poem that I want to share here.  It makes me very happy to know that Miss Brenda is spending her beloved spring with Jesus and that she gets to see and smell and touch and love the flowers that He grows in heaven.

If this were my last day I'm almost sure
I'd spend it working in my garden.
I would dig about my little plants
and try to make them happy
so they would endure long after me.
Then I would hide secure
where my green arbor shades me from the sky,
and watch how bird and bee and butterfly
came hovering to every flowery lure.
Then, as I rested, perhaps a friend or two,
lovers of flowers would come,
and we would walk
about my little garden paths and talk
of peaceful times when all the world seemed true.
This may be my last day, for all I know;
What a temptation just to spend it so!
                            Anne Higginson Spicer

Brenda Faye Lester

March 21, 1946 - March 5, 2011