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Our precious Gigi Louise has a song again. The Lord released her from earth just a few hours before her 96th birthday on Tuesday.
Gigi Louise's passing marks the end of an era for our family. Her remarkable generation, those raised by parents and grandparents of the 19th century, is now all gone. Suddenly the ship seems slight of ballast; our identity feels diluted by her absence, and oddly mutable.
Many of Gigi's friends and loved ones have expressed the sense that, as my friend Rachel put it, "her kind is vanishing from the earth." We feel the watershed, and it is sobering: somehow we must become the ones who take their place in the ballast hold. We feel too light for it, and yet here we are. His mercy endureth to all generations, His mercy endureth to all generations...
And it was through that same mercy that our Gigi Louise aged with truly astonishing grace. As she became more frail and infirm, she also became ever more pleasant and content. This is a rare grace among the aging, and it has been heartening to witness. Even as her mind and body began to fail her, she was full of childlike wonder and effusively grateful for even the smallest things. She noticed beauty everywhere. And now she is surrounded by it.
Gigi Louise lived a kind of life that can never be lived again. She served her Lord faithfully and she took great delight in loving all the people He brought into her life. She leaves us all inspired. I feel honored to have known her and loved her.
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5 comments:
And "yet here we are," my friend.
"Astonishing grace."
I heard an expression today: that life for those of us us who love and follow Jesus is a long walk home.
May His mercy endure to your Mom, as she becomes the top tier generation - and may you and I and women like us each determine to live godly, in love and grace and God's beauty, on this ever-shortening walk of our own.
Much, much love to you...
We are in prayer for the whole family as you grieve her and travel to mourn together as well as celebrate the fact that she does have a song again. We love y'all.
This is such a beautifully written post about a woman you very obviously love. I have no beautiful words of my own, so I will leave this:
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces...
Isaiah 25:8
May the Lord be with you and your family at this time.
Not only does she have a song again, but a better song than she has ever sung.
I told Bryan last week how much I can tell that I've been affected by first Mother's and then Aunt Mayme's passing. With Mother, I felt like I'd lost all my family memories, as if she were their source and keeper. Aunt Mayme was very much in that roll, too. She was just days from her 96th birthday when she passed away in March.
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