Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Our dearest Mother Simpson is now with the Lord!

A little more than a week ago we got a phone call that my dearest, great-grandmother had fallen and broken her hip. So we spent several days praying for her as well as our dear Uncle Charles, for he's been the one caring for her, and he hasn't been feeling well either. After the doctors put several pins in Mother Simpson's hip, she just wasn't able to recover, and she passed away on Tuesday, March 20, 2007.

This coming July, she would have been 102, and up until the day she fell, she still lived alone. She was a wonderful servant of our Lord, and I'm sure that the heavenly host of angels are now enjoying having her cook 'em up a mess of food....friend chicken, friend okra, and yummy greens! We miss and love her very much!

In many ways, I'm thankful that she is now with the Lord...even though at times this will be a difficult transition for our family. She lived almost 102 full, happy, blessed years and now has the full rewards of the covenant. She was loved by so many people, and she will most certainly be missed; however, her legacy will continue...she has set the bar quite high for all of us to follow in her lead! She graciously and generously served our Lord and her friends and family with such joy, and she was such a gentle, lovely, genuine woman. We've all learned so much from her, and we will always cherish our memories with her! Our family will forever be proud to have called her mother, friend, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother!

That weekend, we traveled down to Graceville, Florida to be there with family for her funeral. We met Mom and Dad, Aunt Jan and Uncle Eddie, Will and Aimee, and Uncle Chuck, and all stayed in a hotel in Dothan, Alabama. Her funeral services were so nice, and I know that she was so loved by so many! After the funeral, we spent some time at her house visiting with friends and family, and then we drove back to Dothan, and Eric and the girls and I stayed an extra night there at the hotel with Mimi and Pawpaw.

We all got up the next morning and drove back as far as Troy, Alabama to visit a wonderful pioneer village and museum! It was so much fun! There were many pioneer artifacts, an authentic 1881 wood burning locomotive, a covered bridge, a one-room schoolhouse, an old log church, several log cabins, a working smokehouse, a working grist mill and beautiful nature trails! The owner's wife was there and even gave the girls lessons on spinning and weaving (beginning with showing them how to pick cotton!), and Annie was amazingly good at it! She cleanly picked every seed out of every piece of cotton that she was given! One of the girls' favorite memories that they made was feeding the chickens...now, these were not ordinary chickens, y'all! The owners suggested that we take the girls to see them, and when we began walking toward their enclosure, those chickens ran to greet us like happy puppies! It was amazing! What a great day that was, and we sadly said goodbye to Mimi and Pawpaw until we would see them...in four more days!

On our way home, we did make our traditional stop at the Peach Park in Clanton, AL. And what a great way to end our short trip...wonderful BBQ, home-ade peach cobbler and icecream, a little shopping in their giftshops, and a stroll through their little gardens, which were fully in bloom!




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