Great-Grandma

"To be absent from the body, is to be present in the LORD"

Blanch Hanna, known to me as Great-Grandma Hanna (technically my husbands great-grandma), had been alive for almost 91 years. What I didn’t know about her was a lot, and what I did know about her were these few facts:

She survived the loss of three of her six children. She loved butterflies and hummingbirds (or at least she liked to collect figurines of them). She did not have a big wedding; She spontaneously eloped on a road trip and stayed married for over 50 years. She survived the death of her road trip partner and had been widowed for more than 20 years. She loved coffee, costume jewelry, church, books, and See's Candy. She once took in her rebellious teenage granddaughter to live with her.


It is safe to assume that she knew and loved many people throughout the 90 plus years she spent on planet earth. So when she chose the people who were to surround her on her deathbed, it was no surprise to me that she picked her formerly rebellious teenage grand-daughter, Diana, my mother-in-law. What did surprise me is that her great grand-children and their spouses, who barley knew her at all, got to share in her death as well. It could have been her three remaining children. It could have been the nurses at the hospital. But she chose us. We weren't there when she was born. We weren’t there when she got married, had her children, or celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary. But we were there for her last breath. We were there when she experienced uninterrupted peace, flew with angels, and met God face to face.