Opinion : Footprints in the sands of time

Ever since my mother in law passed away, and we were sitting around with Stuart, our funeral guy trying to decide what to put in her obituary, I realized that in all the things that she had done, her life was summed up in a few paragraphs.

A few months ago, we lost a gal that was part of our church family. A little gal, probably in the 4 foot something range.

Again, I realized that in her whole life, this little gal never had the recognition she deserved, and most mothers don't.

She was a mom, mother-in-law, grandma, and great grandma, a wife and loved to make quilts and cookies.

She lived on a farm and shared a story with us when we first started raising our chickens. She told how she had two nails in an old stump that formed a “V”. She had unexpected company stop by and they needed meat for supper. She being the farm wife that she was, went out and grabbed a chicken for supper.

Carefully placing the hen's head in those nails to hold it, she lifted the ax to chop it's head off and barely nicked the beak of the chicken. She chuckled and said, “The poor thing had to go through it twice!”

There were many times that the missions groups would load up in the vans to take off and she would hand them an ice cream bucket of her molasses cookies. (Now I BET if I made molasses cookies the kids' would've said, "Um, thanks but I'm not going to TRY those!" Now the girls try to duplicate her recipe.)

Each time the youth left, she would be there to see them off...with her cookies.

She created a quilt where the blocks didn't quite line up in spots, she wanted to get rid of it, but her son stepped up and rescued it, and says to this day it was his favorite.

The other things she created were 3 children. Now I only know one of them, Mike. Mike is our Sunday School teacher, an elder in our church a dad and grandpa himself and an all around great guy.

Someone once said, “You can tell how good of a job you did as a parent by looking at your grandchildren.” True or not, I know some of her grandchildren, and I'd say she did a great job.

At her funeral the building was packed.

Most funeral directors will tell you that when you lose someone in their 80's and 90's there isn't much of a crowd.

As I looked at the crowd, I thought about how this little gal didn't leave behind any concrete buildings and there aren't monuments to her around town, but there are hundreds of people that this little gal has made an impact on.

We have a small coop in our yard that her husband Bud had built, and when I think of our chickens, and about when it's time to butcher, I will think of the “poor little dear that had to go through it twice”, and the chuckle of the little gal telling the story.

She lived here for a mere 92 years, and most in the world didn't know Katherine, but in our little corner of the world she taught a lot of people how to live life in the best ways.

She loved God, her family, she loved her church, she loved her friends, and loved to lend a hand.

Isn't that really what life is all about? Just loving and helping each other out?

So while Katherine was the smallest gal that I can remember meeting, she sure did a monumental job in her family, her church, her life and as a result in her community.

Thanks Katherine for the example, if I can only do it half as well...