My Mother's Eyes

Roy and Jewel Turk

on their first wedding anniversary

in 1937

My Grandparents.

Alzheimers took him away many years ago.

She turned 90 this year, on April 3, 2010.

You could never meet a stronger woman.

Just a year ago, she was still strong, still a go-getter.

Still going to the farmers market and putting away

vegatables for winter, still "in charge", still sewing,

still going to church every Sunday.

Nothing shook her foundation.

Nothing could ever shake her faith.

I would say that "her faith carried her through the hard times".

But it's more likely that she was the one doing the carrying.

She taught me how to sew when I was just a toddler.

I remember going to work with her at her "Singer" store.

I loved every second of it. She would let me sew on all of the

new and very latest Singer sewing machines... with fancy

stitches, and attachments that would whip up ruffles

lickety split. I could play on those machines all day long,

and sew up as much fabric as I wanted to. Big bowls full of

buttons that looked like treasure chests to me.

After working all day, back at home, after dinner,

it was time to read the Bible. When I started school, and was

learning to read, she would let me read it to her. I couldn't

pronounce many of the words, and she'd have to help, but

she loved to have her grand-children reading the Bible to her.

If we wanted a snack, she'd make a pan full of biscuits and

serve it up with a big plate full of Georgia Cane Syrup.

She taught me so many things. And then...

She loved me, when I was truly unloveable.

She says She is ready to go to Heaven, she's just waiting

for Jesus to open the gate. I know she's ready.

I want to tell her that "It's Okay." If she's ready to leave us.

But I can't bring myself to say it. I see the heartbreak in My

Mothers Eyes, and I know, I'll never be ready to let her go either.