Her Name Says it All....JOY{e}

The last living sibling to my Mother {who died when I was two and a half}, passed away last night. We will certainly miss that twinkle in her beautiful blue eyes, and the smile on her face. She just beamed when family was around, and she was the verve at the Senior Center on Mexican Train night. For many years she has written an article in the local newspaper titled "The Other Side of 80", of which she shared a few in emails with us. Some of the wit was hers, some was a collection of things she received from other people. But honest to goodness, there was some pieces of them, that spoke to the heart and soul of issues!

Take for instance: "Seems to me there are too many people in too many cars in too much of a hurry going too many directions to get nowhere for nothing. The biggest need in auto safety is the recall of a few million defective drivers"; "I always said the world needs more warm hearts and fewer hot heads. Every time you give someone a piece of your mind you make your head a little emptier-so be sure you can get by with what you have left"; "A temper displayed in public is indecent exposure"; "Did you ever stop to think about the difference between a house and a home. A house is someplace you resided for some time before you moved to another house. A home is where you put down roots, raise you family, create memories along the way that live with you for the rest of your life."

'I have warned you before, I am not political, I don’t preach religion, and I write about old age, middle age and all the things that go with it. I write to amuse people, to get a laugh about the process of growing old. If you can’t laugh once in a while what is there to look forward to? What I enjoy most is making fun of old age. I am entitled because I live it, and I hope I can say that I enjoy it. It always pays to have a positive attitude. Being over 80 is sometimes more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old. They say that by the time most folks learn to behave themselves they’re too old to do anything else. The late Bill Jones said at the senior center, “By the time a man finds greener pastures, he’s too old to climb the fence.”

'Here are a few thoughts I would like to pass along. Maybe you will find one that you can relate to.
When you can think of yesterday without regret and tomorrow without fear, you are near real contentment.
How can a person ever know whether his faith was weak or strong unless it has been tried and tested?.. Faith gives us the courage to face the present with confidence, and the future with expectancy.
A real friend warms you by his presence, trusts you with his secrets, and remembers you in his prayers… False friends are those who roll out the carpet for you one day and pull it out from under you the next.
Friendship is a living thing that lasts only as long as it is nourished with kindness, sympathy, and understanding.'

Life is a gift - Read the title over again. When you get to be my age I am thankful every day for the gift of life. I have enjoyed my life up to now, and I intend on treating it as a gift and do all in my power to take care of myself in body and spirit. I don’t get to church so I have to do something that will let me through the pearly gates. That is why I do all the crocheting I do - donating it to charities, the homeless shelters, and other organizations that take care of the ones not as fortunate as I am. {I might add, there are many family and friends who have benefited from her crocheting skills who have the stocking caps and beautiful baby shawls that she has made} and I thank her for those.

God bless and I will be back next week. {This is the phrase that she usually ended her article with.} I would add, 'I am with God, we will see you soon'.

I wrote her daughter Wendy this morning and this is the jest of the note: Well, I guess prayer is answered {in part} even if it's hard for those of us left here. I didn't hear about this until after midnight last night when I was up reading emails and saw Clydene's blog entry. Then I laid in bed until 2-3 am thinking about Aunt Joye, and what a wonderful reunion she is having with your Dad, her parents and all of her brothers and sisters......there is no other word than HEAVENLY!! I would love to be there to see that....I guess the older I become, the more curious I am about my Mother and wanting to know more about her. I would love to look in her face and hear what she thought about my decisions and how they have affected my life; to get her reaction to the joy my children and grandchildren bring to me, and to feel her arms around me. Rejoice in knowing that she is healthy, happy, probably dancing!!

We Love you all for your patience, compassion and endurance through her illness, and know that we will be praying for faith and strength to get through this week. We will miss her, but OH! how I envy who she is with!