The World Lost an Amazing Woman this week

This is a sad post, but I want to preface this by saying that I am documenting our life and this is something very big that has happened in our world this week, so I want to be able to look back and see my thoughts from this week.

My grandmother Gilland passed away on Thursday.  The funeral was held at Memphis Funeral Home in Bartlett, TN on Saturday, September 8th - just six days after her birthday.  We celebrated her life at 10am with a visitation, 11am with the funeral service, and buried her beside poppa by the end of the day.  Their bodies may be there, but their souls are in heaven - I'm imagining grandmother singing in the choir and poppa is sleeping through it.  I'm sure he was standing at the gate when she arrived and he was wondering what took her so long, and she probably wanted to know why he left her so quickly!  

I love these two so very much and cannot have asked for better grandparents.  I can't believe that I was lucky enough to have them for 24+ years of my life.  Thank you Lord for giving me the best grandparent's in the world.  

This is the Gilland Crew Grandmother left behind this week 

The great grandchildren - 15 of them - "Be fruitful and multiply" 

All the cousins and their spouses

Our little "Golding" crew

Love my boys.

My grandmother is a woman beyond explaining.  She was the most Godly and God Fearing women I've ever met.  She gave me determination like I had never had, and she loved each of us unconditionally.  There are so many great memories that I have of this sweet lady, and so very many include poppa as well.

* Grandmother was an incredible woman who shared her life with each of us.
* It's funny how each of the grandchildren thought we were her favorite - that takes a pretty special person to be able to pull that off.  She was that kind of a person thought - she was an amazing wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, friend, and teacher.
* She took SO much of her time to spend with each of us (as a group and individually)
* We had cousin sleep overs when we were young and would catch lightening bugs, eat our weight in brownies, and sleep in pallets all throughout the house.  We always woke up to pancakes cooking in the kitchen, and she would make the best nuts and bolts for us to snack on.
* I also remember all the many hours she put in helping me memorize scripture and drill me religiously until I had it right - all for Bible drill competitions.  I always knew everything I needed to because she would persist until I had it all.
* I used to bite my nails and she would always say "Some day some boy is going to come along and want to give you a ring and you are going to want to wear it won't you - so don't bite those nails!" - and she was right - I eventually did meet that special someone and he did give me a ring to wear - and I don't bite my nails (much) anymore.  :)
* She also sang to us - all the time!  My favorite was "I love you a bushel and a peck - you bet your pretty little neck I do!" - I now sing that to Tucker every night when I take him out of the shower to get his pj's on for bed.  He smiles and giggles each time - making memories!
* She drove me all over town to and from basketball practices, and she and poppa were always in the stands cheering us on. I can't imagine how many thousand's of games she attended between the eight grandchildren growing up- not to mention her own boys.
* She taught me what it means to be a Godly Woman, how to be wise, and how to love the Lord with all your heart.
* She has read her Bible more times than she could count - her Bible is tattered and warn, literally falling to pieces, but written throughout the entire thing and it's obvious that she was absorbed in the Word daily.
* She was a servant for everyone she came in contact with.
* She was a prayer warrior like no other.
* She set family values in each of us and really lived out the values she taught daily.
* Family lunch on Sunday's were so much fun - Poppa had made a table years ago that held 25 people - we had to add another table at the end a few years back in order for everyone to sit at the same table.  Grandmother never sat down until everyone was through eating, but it was so much fun sitting around that table and sharing time with our family.  Precious memories were made.

Poppa passed away October 2009.  We honestly didn't know what to expect, but knew that Grandmother was a fighter and we all thought she would bounce back, but little did we know that was not what the Lord had in store for her.  We had no real understanding that when we lost poppa, we lost her too.  We slowly started realizing that she was not as healthy as we thought.  Early signs of Alzheimer's was inevitable.  She had feared this her whole life, and her fears came true - she quickly began declining, and next thing we knew she was at Ava Maria in Bartlett.  The nurses there were incredible, and she was cared for wonderfully, but she continued to digress and she took her last breath on Thursday, September 6th around 11am.

I was fortunate enough to have a little bit of a heads up that things were not going well and spent several hours just me and her on Wednesday afternoon.  I read to her from her Bible, which was special for me.  I also had the chance to share my heart with her one last time.  There is no doubt in my mind that she knows how I feel about her, but I didn't want to leave anything out or regret not telling her one last time, so I made sure to get that quality time with her I desired.  I'm so very thankful that the Lord blessed me with that small window of time - I'll always be so glad for it.

As I read her Bible to her, I realized how special this book was - not just the Bible, but HER Bible.  She had notes all throughout, and it was so neat - her Bible did not capitalize "he" when referring to Jesus or the Lord, but she had gone through and capitalized He in EVERY PLACE - Literally the entire Bible had been corrected.  How neat to see how many times she must have read her Bible, but also how she corrected it because that's what it should have been in the first place.

I love this woman more than words can express, and I'll miss her so very much, but I know she is in a better place and that she arrived at the gates of Heaven and was greeted with a "Well done, good and faithful servant" from her Lord.  Thank you grandmother for the values you instilled and the time you spent with each of us.  I pray that we can carry on that legacy for many years to come.  I Love You!

Here's a few photos from over the years:

This was taken after Poppa's funeral in '09

These are just a few of the lives that Grandmother and Poppa have affected over the years - this is just family.

Photo from our wedding - the Gilland's side - we now have 15 grand grand babies (plus one one the way), 11 grandchildren.  So thankful for the values those two set for our family.

My sweet grandmother with Kassie and I at Christmas '07

Grandmother and Poppa with our family - this was right before we got married in January.