Dear Mom...

Some of you may have seen my Wednesday post on Facebook announcing that my dear mom stepped through the gates of heaven sometime early Wednesday morning. She had been fighting the Alzheimer battle for many years as my faithful  step-dad cared for her every step of the way. These are two of the most amazing people I know, and I love them so much.

I think it was Nancy Reagan who coined the phrase, "the long good-bye" when speaking of Alzheimers. That does seem fitting. I've been missing my mom's presence since her emails began to get further apart and then stopped. At that point my wonderful step-dad began emailing me and explaining what she was going through. They live 1,000 miles away and so I flew down to see mom while she still knew who I was. I'm thankful for that visit. I think it was the next year that Bob and I went down to see her, and she seemed happy and healthy, but it was obvious she just thought we were a couple of nice people who came for a visit. It is a blow to lose the last person in the world who remembers your childhood and can laugh and recall old memories. I'm sure most of you have lost parents or a spouse. The loss of someone who shares your history and memories leaves an empty place in your heart.

There's no way around this. We will all die. But there is hope and that makes all the difference. My sweet mama has made the leap from this world, which can at times be beautiful, but which carries so much suffering and loss, to that eternal world where she is safe with her Lord. She loves the Lord with all her heart and I know she's having an exciting adventure. That makes it so much easier to see her go. Our separation is only temporary.

I had many of the same feelings when I lost Bob in the fall of 2013. At that time I didn't want to look at pictures of him when he was older. It made me think of the fact that he had been very sick when the photos were taken and we didn't know it yet. Now I can look at those older pictures and remember the happy times we had when they were taken. Many of them were photos of him holding his much loved grandchildren. Those were good times.

So, I kind of wanted to post some photos of my mom in her youth. She was a fun loving person from the looks of it and I love these old photos of her. Her name is Mary Jane and she's a southern girl. She was born and raised in Angleton, Texas. Although we later lived in Colorado for around 20 years, she and my step-dad returned to Angleton where she lived out the rest of her life and was reunited with her sisters. I'm so glad she got to spend some great years back among her southern kin.

Grandpa, Mom and Aunt Dixie.

My Aunt Patsy and Mom.

Patsy, Dixie and Mom...the three Moseman girls.

 

Glamorous at 16.

She was the drum major for her high school during a big parade in Houston.

That's her on the left strutting her stuff.

Mom on the right with a friend. Mom's friends called her "Bird-legs"!

Age 16, in front of her high school.

Starting to look very grown up.

We lived in Deer Park, a suburb of Houston, when this pictures was taken. Mom captioned it "Mother Hen". This was a very rare snowfall in southeast Texas!  Mom and yours truly.

We moved a lot when I was a child, but mom always made it seem like an adventure!

When Mom was in her 50's and later, she had many other adventures, and I'm so glad she got to experience so many wonderful things. She went to YWAM's Discipleship Training course and traveled to Hawaii to do the training. I am not at all sure of the year that this took place, but that's not really important. I believe as a result of this training she later took a trip to China to do some missions activities. Later still, she took a trip to Israel! She was a major support for my brother James and his family during their many years as missionaries, and she supported my homeschooling efforts for 19 years, paying for all of our curriculum. She loved to serve "behind the scenes". As she got older she told me that God was calling her to a ministry of availability. She wanted to be sure she was available when people needed someone to talk to. She said so many people are too busy to just be available for those in need. She wrote an inspirational newsletter for her church for years. She used her gift of writing in many ways and she had a lot of wisdom from studying God's Word for so many years. She was a true gift to this family and I just wanted to let everyone know how special she was...and still is! She lives on in heaven and we'll all meet again and laugh and dance with our Heavenly Father! I know He's glad to have his little girl home.

We love you, Mom!
Shalom to all!