Since last year I posted about being mother-less on Mother’s Day, here’s something else I wrote (hoping the Heavenly postal system can forward it on to her!)

13 May 2018

• Mrs. Virginia Johnson Woodward
• c/o The Angels
• 76 Streets of Gold
• Heaven, 23621

Dear Mama,

Oh, how we miss you! Oh, how I miss you, heart of our hearts. We are so grateful to God for the gift of your life. The legacy of the love of Jesus in and through you lives on – in the hearts and lives of all you touched.

Shere, Cindy, Dean, Dwight & I blubber on, what with missing you and Papa.

It’s been over two years, but we feel your presence, still. Hear your voice around the corner. See you smiling up at us in photographs.

But, there’s no you to hug here in this place.

My heart aches with a big Mama-sized hole in it. You’ve graduated and are (hopefully resting) in the Everlasting Arms of God. Not sure how Heavenly assignments get designated, but after all you did here on this earth (so selflessly) I hope there’s a long Heavenly vacation before you’re called up for active celestial duty.

I miss you, Mama. We miss you, Mama, and love, love, love, love, love you!

You were so beautiful, Mama. You were concerned about your crooked back, slanted by sclerosis, and how you had shrunk a bit and leaned a little sideways. But everyone always oohed and ahhed when I rolled you out in your wheelchair. With your elegant white hair and porcelain features, you were so lovely.

Just like Papa always said, “Isn’t she lovely?!”

You were, and are, and will always be, lovely and beautiful in our hearts, Mama.

I can hear Papa say, “Ginny Woodward, have I told you how much I love you today?”

The mush would continue as you whispered sweet everythings to each other, not realizing just how loud your ‘whispers’ had become (heard clearly by minion daughter at the other end of the house.)

I miss you, Mama. I miss Papa, too. I miss you both, together.

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord.”

That sums up the two of you: God’s faithfulness to you, your faithfulness to God, to each other, to us, to ministry. And love, so big, so bright, so real in the trenches of life, the good and the challenging (especially 28 years of Papa’s quadriplegia.)

When people came in the door of our home, they felt it: love, God’s love, spilling over and over through your lives.

We could see it in your eyes beholding each other with beauty and awe, you two were literally one: Mama, you as Papa’s hands and feet for years, and Papa as your foundation (with Jesus.)

No buts, just “both ands” – bookends that completed each other.

Moving away from the mushy bits of your lives (lest the mush police ticket herself!)

Without you and your love that has been such a constant in my life, sometimes your kid feels rudderless. You have always been there, Mama, through every scraped knee and life scrape. When I was sick, you were there with comfort, gingerale (& ice cream.)

Even as a bratty teenager!  Remember those long rides from Va. Beach to Norfolk through frustrating traffic to pick me up from after school activities, when I wouldn’t say a word the whole way home because you were a few minutes late?

You would cheerfully ask, “How was your day?” My response: silence, bratty silence.

Please forgive me for that and so many other bratty things growing up.

Yet you were there loving me through all that (and more.) Thank you for being by my side holding my hand (& later my heart.)  Thank you for all your love and prayers, Mama, that saw me (and our family) through so much.

You are now on the other side at home with Jesus. I don’t know how thin the veil, or thick, that separates us. But, please, Mama, know that I thank God every day for the precious gift of your life.

Missing you & loving you on Mother’s Day (& every day.)

grace, peace & ethereal hugs

Virginia Lea : )

Mama with Brighton Eve (one of her 4 great-grand children) & Lynn (my sister-in-law)