Most of my associates these past few years have been widows. Long gone are the together times I had with Harry and probably didn’t appreciate near enough. But my glass is half-full (rather than half-empty) because of these wonderful ladies who keep in touch. They care and they understand.
Now a days the media seems to want to put us under different classifications depending on your years…for example, the 50’s.60’s,70’s,etc. and now the “boomers”. I don’t “boom” much anymore so am not sure where I fit in. The decades have slipped by so swiftly in my life.
And those decades had their trials and their triumphs. I have a tendency to think I have had the best of all those years and yet someone much younger would be appalled at some of my experiences and wonder how I could classify them as “good years.”
Losing my Dad when I was 15 years old, was tragic but it shaped who I was to become…independent, resourceful and quite stubborn. I needed those attributes …the next decade found me in a foreign country with a small baby and desperately ill. But God was there and my concerned RCAF husband courageously went to his commanding officer and asked for help and got it!
The next decade found us floundering in a business that was going bust. But God sent us to northern Alberta. There we struggled again for more years and wondered why He had sent us to what we felt was the ends of the world. But we learned to pray and pray some more.
And then in the next decade God revealed his plans…plans that he had always had for us, plans according to his time line and we moved south about 80 miles and never looked back.
Yes, there were still life experiences that shaped us …failed businesses, poor health and the loss of loved ones but God never deserted us. He sure tested us though!
But oh the memories…sometimes silly memories…like my teenage daughters showing their independence by phoning our lawyer who lived down the street. They were annoyed that the workmen at our house were hanging around and not going home after 6 p.m. (we were out of town at the time). They wanted to find out what their rights were. Once informed they told those men to leave, and they did! Those years of raising teenagers were trying but full of surprises.
Then for a decade we were on our own…the nest was empty for a bit and then a marriage, grand-babies appeared and the nest was partly filled. For 15 years our lives rotated around these new family members, then they left the nest. I still recall a visit to Edmonton and at our entry; Mike opened his bedroom door and yelled “Hi grandma,” then went back to his music, which he loved. I knew an era had passed.
And now I live alone…I am not lonely, I have a million memories and many good friends, mostly church friends who I dearly love. God knew that my last decade I would be alone but he has filled those years with things I could never have imagined…blogs to write, great-grandchildren to delight the eye, old friends and new friends and always His presence. I am much blessed!
Photo by Sean MacEntee via Flickr/Creative Commons
