By now most of you have heard of the passing of my mom, Faye Griffin Smith, on St. Patrick's Day. I was able to be there to witness her passing into glory. It wasn't as hard as watching dad go because of the quickness and I still don't have my mind around it, but being there and hearing the last breath is kind of surreal.
My family and I have been making plans and calling around to try and contact all her friends and our family so that everyone will be notified properly. It's not really a sense of Deja-Vu because I don't really remember all the finalities of Dads from 8 years ago, but there is a kind of sameness about the preparations.
Mom was a teacher, leader, servant, administrator, homemaker, columnist, coordinator, and friend to all. I probably missed some title but they don't really cover all of it. She did so many things within the school system, church, home, community, and state that they are hard to remember and cover them all. She taught through two or three generations. She was so organized that we will be finding lists of things for the next 30 years.
The list making kind of took a life of itself around the house, and when she was sick, but it was an essential part of her. I'm positive all of us kids remember the chore lists where you picked an easy chore and a hard one and your fun didn't start until they were completed.
Until I get this out I will have a hard time concentrating on anything else and my dog is looking at me funny because of the tears. I have all these images of Mom out riding her bike with Gretel following, stumping around on crutches (again), standing in the second door of the first hall at QHS, leading (or following) us to church, shopping at the base, that look on her face when she was exasperated with one or all of us, putting out lists for chores, but the most enduring was her bible and praying.
Very rarely did anything get in the way of her bible study. She would take the time to read, study the verse, read a devotional, write something down, and pray. Mom always had a lot to pray about, not only because of her big family but because of her heart.
Mom endured the later parts of her life because of her prayer life and her relationship with Jesus. I say endured because she really missed Dad and her sister Elia. She missed the daily conversations that they had and love that they brought to her life. She loved all her family and friends but those two were really special. She missed being in Quitman but none of that stopped her from her mission of teaching others about God and His Message to the world. She endured it because of the way that she was raised and the way she lived. She endured because she knew that her time here was coming to an end and the great revelation that was awaiting her with God. She endured because that's what she believed. To run her race until the end.
Most of you are familiar with the story of Enoch, from Genesis 5. It is said that Enoch walked steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone. God took him.
At 2:44 am, on March 17, 2016, I was sitting by a bedside in a hospital in Atlanta, watching my mom breath her last. I knew that she had walked steadily with God. One minute she was there and the next she was gone. God took her. It's as simple as that.
As she was witness to my first breath, so I was witness to her last. The words of the late DL Moody came to mind, and I paraphrase; Today you will read in the paper that Faye Griffin Smith of Quitman, MS, is dead, don't you believe a word of it. At this moment she is more alive than ever. That which is born of the flesh will die. That which is born of the spirit will live forever."
Until we meet again in glory, your son Alan. ags
