A Tribute To Grandma Lee

If your world seems just a bit dimmer, it may be because the sweet, innocent flame of my Grandmother's life has been fading this week after burning vibrantly on this earth for 93 years...during which she lost her mother at the age of 3 and due to the fact she had numerous siblings and her father, Jasper, felt he didn't have the skills or resources to raise her alone, she was given to friends of the family to raise as their own. Aunt Bessie and Uncle Jack brought Mary Louise Hotz up in the small river town of Shoals, IN. They ran a boarding house out of their home from which many of the pleasant childhood memories Grandma Lee would often share came. The love of her life Harry Lee grew up down the street, and although I am not aware of how they became acquainted, I do know that out of their marriage came the most spectacular mother, Nancy Pannell, with whom God ever could have blessed me along with another daughter, Carolyn Parker. Honestly, the breif sketch I have of Grandma's life before she knew me is a little like a fairy tale in my imagination probably because she lived her life with such gentleness, grace and beauty that I always viewed her as if she were royalty! I know that she waited longer than I did even in these modern times to marry and have children, and being the modern, trend-setter that she was braved the world of men to attain her driver's liscense while she worked in factories as my Grandfather served our country in the Navy. As I lace together the stories she told with the fantasy-like ribbon that is my view of my Grandma Lee, I realize that another reason I might have such an unearthly perspective of her life is that I never heard her complain or express a negative thought about any person or event as she shared these little snapshots of who she was before I knew life. Being that my Grandparents escaped the perils of Pearl Harbor due to a medical discharge, they headed back to Shoals to start and raise their family in a circle of friends from church, where my Grandma played piano and organ for years while faithfully worshipping even in turmoil, and various community clubs while partnering to run a flooring business that served all over Indiana until my Grandfather's health failed due to a series of heart related illnesses culminating when I was 10-months-old in death. Grandma Lee never remarried but remained beautiful, independent, and vibrant for the next 30 years of my life wooing me into the adoration of a grandchild with her complete sweetness that always manifested itself with a smile on her face and a gentle touch from her soft, warm hand preceding a seemingly endless conversation that left you feeling as if you had entered another more innocent much more wonderful time when life moved at a much gentler clip and ladies where actually ladies by definition as they paraded through life with their hair all in perfect place and their modest clothing crisp and tidy with only a light kiss of make-up highlighting already perfect skin that belied any age at all as they charmed the world around them with kindness and generosity that in unknown in today's world. I adore my Grandma Lee, and she is so worthy of every bit of my adoration because I know that more of my impression of her is reality than one would believe possible! Although she never went on about Jesus in the noisy, potentially annoying way I do, I know from her legacy (the one that lives on in me) that this woman will soon be in the company of my Savior, and I will be pleased to meet her there as a fellow daughter of the KING when God sees fit to call me home! Thank you Grandma for everything that you have always been to me, and for everything your memory will continue to be to me and the generations after me! your memory will continue to bless us forever:)

I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded now lives in you also. 2 Timothy 1:5