Grandma Helen is not always keen about having her picture taken - I could find no recent shots of her alone.
This one from last Christmas is a particular favorite of mine, so I will post it once more.
I was reading on Facebook where Anna Fifield talked about losing her mom when she was only 14. And then a friend posted that she had lost her mother when she was 8. I don't know that I have always appreciated what a great blessing it is to have had a wonderful mother's influence for so many years. You would think that hearing my father mourn the loss of his mother over the years would have helped me keep these thoughts in perspective. But it has taken time for me to know the great blessing a mother's love is.
I have probably told this story before, but I recall as a young teen worrying every time my mom went to the hospital to have a baby that she would die. Women stayed for ten days - sometimes two weeks - and you didn't call and talk to her either. My dad went and visited each evening and just came home and reported. I would imagine that someone wasn't telling us the truth.
I started worrying when my grandmother once said, "I wish your mom wouldn't keep having babies. If she dies, I can't take care of all of you." Later Alice asked me, "Is Mom going to die?" I remember saying I didn't think so - but I worried after that.
I recall thinking that if I could make it to 21, I wouldn't worry about it anymore!! Ah youth!!
But she has been with us almost 91 years now - and I've had almost 66 of those years. I would be lying if I said I always appreciated her. Over the years, I have come to realize how faithful and strong she is. I have come to realize that she loves and cares for each one of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. I have come to realize that she was a good wife. I have come to realize that she is willing to serve. I have come to realize that she is wise because she has lived long enough to learn many things - things I think the rest of us think we know - and we really don't! I have come to realize that she loves beauty. I have come to realize that she appreciates each day.
Mostly I have come to realize that she is a wonderful blessing in my life - and always has been - even when I wasn't appreciating it!
I'm afraid if I left it to Harry to get something posted about his mom, it might not happen. So I will tell you what I have come to know and love about Grandma Helen.
She too has lived a long time - and is wise with the wisdom of years. She is faithful - each day, she puts her life in the Lord's hands and trusts Him completely. She too has a great love for each of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. She has known sorrow and loss, but she also has a sure knowledge of the blessings of the atonement.
I first met her when Harry was on his mission. Jim came and picked me up and brought me to the house on Emery for dinner. Grandmother Taylor was living with them. Watching her loving care of her mother was a sermon in itself. Seeing her faithful efforts to entreat the Lord to lead her husband to the waters of baptism was inspiring. The loving care she gave to Genieve for so many years was service in action.
And I loved how she would find a shoe she liked and would buy a pair in every color - a woman after my own heart!!
Let's hear it for Mothers - and Mothers-in-law!!
