Tag Archives: rebecca

Tom’s Mom

It seems like I have been going to a lot of funerals lately.  Last week I went to my Aunt Judy’s funeral, who had lost her fight against cancer.  This weekend I went to my mother-in-law’s funeral, who also lost her fight against cancer.  It seems that more and more people are losing their battle against cancer, and it is troubling. Although I could totally get on my soapbox at this point, I won’t.  This post is about Rebecca Rogers – Tom’s mother, my Mother-in-Law and my children’s Grandmother (Maw-Ma).

I cannot imagine losing a parent.  Although Tom knew that it was coming, I don’t think he, or anyone else, could ever be fully prepared for the actual event.  I am thankful that he was there with her when she went to heaven.  As a Christian, it is comforting to know that a loved one, and fellow believer in Christ, is immediately in heaven with the Lord when the heart stops beating.  We miss the person here on Earth, but we also rejoice in the new life that is given in heaven.  Rebecca is now in heaven with a new body that is no longer sick. In that, we rejoice.

I have to say that one of the hardest events of the last week was telling the kids that Maw-Ma had passed away.  The children literally cried and wailed, Wilson especially.  He was really looking forward to going up to see her again so that he could say good-bye to her. Wilson is a sweet and sensitive little boy, and although he didn’t pay Maw-Ma a lot of attention when in Pennsylvania, she was still his grandmother and he loved her.  Faith spent the most time with her;  they would color together and Maw-Ma would teach Faith about the Appalachian mountains and the Susquehanna River.  We were planning to go up to visit this past weekend, but instead of a visit with her, we went to her funeral.  It is sometimes amazing how we make plans for one thing, but end up doing another on the same day.

The funeral was a nice memorial of Rebecca.  There were many scriptures that she wanted to have read which allowed many loved ones to come up and speak.  She wanted to be remembered for her faith in Christ.  She knew who her Lord was and hoped that she had pointed to Him throughout her life.  I am sad that she is gone and I know that she will be missed.  She loved her family dearly and was committed to showing my children how much she loved them and wanted to be with them.   I know that they will miss her as well.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Faith and Maw-Ma….

  

Pennsylvania

We flew in last Wednesday morning from Atlanta (we missed all of our connecting flights from Denver on Tuesday), drove home from the airport, grabbed a few additional items, picked up the kids from my mom’s house, and began the drive up to Mechanicsburg, PA to see Tom’s family.  It was a bit chaotic trying to get out of town, but it worked out well because we already had bags packed from the week prior and could get out of town earlier than expected.  Now that the kids are older, these nine hour drives are much more enjoyable than they were in years past.

This year’s trip went very well.  We were able to spend a good amount of quality time with Rebecca, Will, Kim and Alexis.  We even got over to Shelly and Vern’s house for ice cream one afternoon.  It rained all day on the 4th but that didn’t stop us from having steak and burgers for lunch…..

We had a great time visiting with family, especially Tom’s mom, Rebecca.  She was diagnosed with cancer two years ago.  We have been very blessed to have her around for two full years and many visits.  She has recently stopped all treatments and now waits to see what the Lord has in store for her and her husband, Will.  It was difficult to say “good-bye” to her this time because the cancer will eventually win, but hopefully not before we can make it back up there for Christmas.  I am very thankful that we were able to see her, talk to her and give her many hugs.  I am praying that we will see her at Christmas or sooner.  She is a wonderful Grandmother to the kids and I know that they enjoy seeing her as well.  She and Faith have a very sweet relationship.   Here they are together testing out Maw-Ma’s cool bed….

As usual, we took one day to drive over to Dutch Wonderland for the day.  If you have never been to Dutch Wonderland and are planning to drive through Lancaster, PA with small children, then you must go!  It is an amusement park geared towards children under the age of ten.  This year Alexis went with us and my brother Doug drove over to meet us with his two boys, Gabriel and shepherd.  It is always nice to have extra adults because the kids tend to want to ride different rides due to their level of bravery and interests.  At first, I took the little boys on the easy rides, Tom took Faith on the roller coasters, and Wilson and Gabriel vacillated between the two.   Towards the end of the day, I went on three rides with Faith, one of which was the Tilt-a-Whirl.  I was so dizzy by the end of the ride that I literally didn’t know if I was going to be able to walk off of the platform without falling over.  I don’t do spinning rides, but Faith was begging me to go with her and I wanted to give her the gift of riding something fun with her mom.  After the Tilt-a -Whirl I rode two roller coasters with her…..yes, I was getting more and more dizzy.  Finally, she asked to ride the carousel, at which point I had to say, “You are riding this one alone.”

One of our favorite events is the diving show.  Here we are dry, before the show…This gathering was especially neat because my kids were with all of their first cousins: Alexis, Gabriel and Shepherd (who had never previously met each other)….

We always enjoy our trips up north.  It is a fun time with extended family and our own little family.  For the drive home we added two more kids to the car – Gabriel and Shepherd rode back to NC with us.  The more the merrier!!