In Memory of Margaret Carpenter

On Wednesday, December 1, I got news that my grandmother passed away. "Grammie," as she's known amongst the grandchildren, had gone into the hospital about a month ago. She suffered a terrible case of shingles, and for a while we thought she wouldn't pull through. Three weeks later, at our Thanksgiving dinner table, I mentioned how I wasn't the least bit surprised that she was still fighting to come back. She had always been one to push through and overcome whatever she faced. However, God took her for himself on Wednesday morning, and rightly so. She no longer struggles, is no longer frustrated by her inability to talk, and no longer is separated from her creator. She is currently in the presence of her Lord, singing His praises, with an even bigger body of believers, including her husband.

Grammie was one of a kind. She had this incredible ability to fall asleep anywhere no matter what was on the TV. or how loud it was. It was only a matter of minutes before her head was back and mouth was open. I remember one time when she was staying at our house, in my room, and in the middle of the night there was a huge BANG! My dad ran upstairs to see what was wrong. Well, the bed had a small quirk in it. The slats under the bed would shift, and if shifted just the right way, they would fall out from under the bed, causing the mattress to collapse as well. Dad fixed the bed, but before he could get back downstairs...BANG! Needless to say, it was a great "control, alt, delete" moment for us!

Grammie would always treat us to dinner when she came in town. One thing that we loved about her was that when we would dine out, she would always wait for my dad to order, and then she would get the exact same thing. It never failed...until one time, while we were ordering, my dad placed his order (and Grammie's for that matter) and when Grammie concurred, my dad changed his order at the last minute! I don't think Grammie ordered the same thing after that day, but you bet we always watched for her to repeat dad's order.

I don't really remember there ever being cookies at Grammie's house, but I'm sure there was never a time that we visited when her candy jar wasn't full of something: the usual suspects being Reese's Pieces, Hershey's Kisses, or M&Ms. It didn't matter how old we were, that was one of the first things we would do when we got to Grammie's house...check the candy jar. Something else we would always do at Grammie's was look through her picture holder that you would turn with a knob. With every dial, more and more pictures would fall down through the pile. Of course, they were always the same pictures from 10-15 years ago: in matching green and navy plaid dresses, in that way too big peach satin dress (which we had to tie on with a blue and white belt) and white sequin hat, in our swimsuits and "swimming pool" in the backyard. And whenever we were done, we always made sure that the picture on display was one of us...that way, anyone who stopped by could admire her most beautiful grandchildren!

Besides checking the candy jar, and fanning through all of the same pictures, another thing on our to-do list at Grammie's was to pull out the slot machine. I have no idea where they got this thing, but they had a slot machine and a bowl full of quarters. Every time we visited, we made sure we got the chance to pull the handle and see if we won. We would play quarter after quarter after quarter on that thing, and when we had finally given up, we would stick our finger under the jackpot tray and push the magical button which would ding in congratulations and release all of the quarters. I wonder if Grandpa taught us how to do that because he was so annoyed with the "pull, click, roll....tick...tick...tick" over and over again.

Thanks to Grammie, Tyler's and my Christmas tree is full of ornaments. Grammie was always faithful to give each grandchild an ornament each year. When I asked my dad about ornaments this year, he said he asked Grammie while she was in the hospital, and to no one's surprise, she has already gotten them. "They are at home on the table," she said to him. Among the collection of Grammie ornaments, I've got a carousel horse bell (family, you know all about these), 2 golden angels, a Santa balancing presents (sorry yours is missing a hand Kayla), and I can't wait to find out what ornament I'll add to the tree to complete the collection.

Other things that bring memories of Grammie are: Giblet gravy, wide brimmed hats, the Grammie "Camry," Swedish Meatballs, Mardi Gras beads, old costume jewelry, that weird crystal thing on her side table (the one we would hold up to our eyes and pretend we were walking on a curved floor), the pop-up monster book in the drawer of the "recliner chair" room, those electronic blackjack games, our Christmas stockings (especially Kayla's with the demonic gingerbread man), those lap table things with the beanbag stuffing underneath, trips to the creek to skip rocks, that weird skylight room with the treadmills, the 50th wedding anniversary of her and Grandpa where they opened 50 gifts wrapped in gold paper, and so much more.

My sister shared this verse with my dad, I thought it was perfect:

Philippians 3:20-21

20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. 

Ever since I got the news of Grammie's passing, I haven't been able to get a song out of my head. The song is "Come to Jesus" by Chris Rice. The part I keep singing over and over is the last verse:

And with your final heartbeat, kiss the world goodbye. Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side, and fly to Jesus, fly to Jesus, fly to Jesus and live!

I know it's really sad, and every time I sing it in my head, I tear up, but it also fills me with joy to know that she has gone in peace and is in a better place than any of us are capable of imagining. So I blow a kiss to you Grammie, and pray that those of us left here in sadness would find Christ's comfort, peace, and joy to know that you are happier than any of the happiest memories we have of you. We love you!

2 Corinthians 5: 1-8

1 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. 3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.