Reminder

My grandchildren never met their grandmother who was their father's birth mother. Although I was blessed to remarry to a woman who shared the raising of two boys, there was always a concern on my part that my granddaughters would neither know or have any memories of the woman who, at one time, I was sure would be my side much longer than the fifteen years with which we were blessed. We yearn for some physical reminder of someone who dies, especially if they were a treasured part of your life. So it was that I decided to present the girls with something that would be a reminder of the special person that they would never meet.

When my older granddaughter reached the age of sixteen, I presented her with a ring that her grandmother wore constantly. My intention was to, likewise on her sixteenth birthday, give her sister the tiny diamond earrings that were among her grandmother's favorites. The earrings are now hers and hopefully will in some way connect her to that person she never met. I can't know for sure if giving the girls these mementos was for their benefit or mine; probably a pretty good case for both. This Christmas will be the thirty-fifth anniversary of there grandmother's death. Making the girls aware of how much meant and how much I would like them to have known her has given a sort of closure.

My life has been blessed in so many ways. Even losing someone with whom you expected to spend the rest of your life with is part of God's plan. Our testing comes in the form of life (or death) experiences. God knew that a tough test showing how powerless were are in most circumstances was what it would take to humble me. God sent another partner to love as only man and woman can through Him. Indeed, I have been blessed

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