One More Day

July 31st
Five years ago today, my Papaw lost his battle with cancer. Then 8 weeks later, my Nannie died sitting in her chair only steps away from where her husband of well over 50 years took his last breath. She had a massive heart attack most likely while napping in her chair. I had been trying to call her, but though she was sitting in her rocking chair on the front porch. Nannie almost died six months before that with conjestive heart failure, but surprised all of her doctors by recovering and actually doing better than she had been in a year or so. It was answered prayers. Papaw died and she was lost without him. I think she was tired, broken and it was time.

Who says that time heals? It's still tough. Papaw was bigger than life to me. I was the first grandchild and we just had a special bond. I can still see every detail of Nannie & Papaw's face, arms, hands, ears....everything. I can still hear their voices call my name. I don't ever want to forget those things. God blessed me with having both of them in my life for 36 years and that's a precious gift! They got to see both of my children and how awesome is that for them to remember their great-grandparents!!

I learned so much from Nannie & Papaw. They lived in the same tiny, wood house in Petal that my mom grew up in and they had no desire to move. That was "home". I learned how doing little things together make memories for kids much more than expensive vacations. Some of the best times that I'll never forget were the many fishing trips we made. Papaw would wake us up so early and we would leave while it was still dark outside. We couldn't even see our corks because the sun hadn't come up yet! Nannie loved to fish more than he did. She would sit for hours and fish. I do wish they could have lived to see this house. She would have loved sitting out on the boat dock with her cane pole.


I'm going to see them again one day! Everytime we sing "Midnight Cry" in choir, it's tough. For all the months that I made the trips back and forth down Hwy 49 to Hattiesburg, I would listen to that song. It always made me feel better knowing that when I did have to say goodbye, I was knew that l would see him again one day. I know I can't have "One More Day" here on earth, but....as Brad Paisley says in the song "When I Get Where I'm Going", "...I'll tell him how much I missed him and then I'll hug his neck."