...in a box of cheerios.
I wish I could type the whole poem... and come Memorial Day Weekend I will, if I remember... but I couldn't find any of the poetry books written by Norma Furgerson.
I am, in fact, eating Cheerios for breakfast this morning. Actually, I just finished the last bite. My grandma ate Cheerios for breakfast every morning. The poem mentioned is one of a few that my great-grandma wrote and dedicated to her.
On Monday, May 3rd, John Clark passed away. He had been diagnosed with some form of cancer a month ago and then had a heart attack and died. It was very sudden for all of his loved ones, they were surprised and not ready to say goodbye quite yet. I don't think I knew Mr. Clark, I'm sure I met him a bunch as a child when my grandparents still lived in Springfield, but I have only one distinct memory in that house, and it was eating Cheerios for breakfast. My grandma was good friends with Linda, John's wife. They had a group of ladies who were all best friends and did a bunch of things together. I only remember two of them from those days. Linda was not one. But, our families have been friends for decades, since the 70s! So we all went to show our love and support.
While we were at the funeral I got the chance to see one of the two women I actually remembered, Bobbie. I remember twice going to the Ritz Carlton for tea. I don't know how many times some of those women reminded me that the one year I got to dress myself I wore a red velvet dress. We went to the tea for my birthday. My birthday is in August. However, I remember those times with my grandma and Bobbie at the Ritz fondly.
You can all blame her for my always demanding the best. Apparently I came home after the first year and told my dad I was having my wedding reception there. I'm still getting told to dream on. I was also told that at one of my dad's company Christmas parties I went to someone asked me if the place was nice [it was] and I said, "I guess, but it's not as nice as the Ritz." I was such a wonderful child.
My grandma passed away the day after her favorite holiday, Easter, when I was in first grade. She had lived with I think 17 years of MS and then during the last few she had brain cancer. It was rough on the family, I was young... I didn't really know. But I'm so thankful to have the memories I do, because it's more than my brother. I got to go fishing with her, paint my fingernails shades of pink and pearly colors, eat Cheerios, go to the Ritz, and more than he ever got to do.
Even things I don't necessarily remember and I just hear from other people make me love her more and wish I could've grown up knowing her through adulthood. The way she continued living her life for the Lord, joyous and thankful to be alive and have her family around her. To live a life of such faith that she prayed the prayer with my grandpa, "God, if it's your will, take our son, we trust you even though it's hard." That was when my dad had been in a coma for 2 weeks and the doctor said there was nothing else they could do, shortly after they prayed my dad started coming to. Crazy. But, that's another story.
She was such a wonderful, inspirational, and influential women. And she was sick. She was dying. What in the world? That makes me mad that I'm perfectly healthy, I don't have anything major going against me, but I'm not always joyful, I'm not always first to pray and trust God 100% right off, I'm not the glue that holds family and friends together like she was. Remember the Clarks? The funeral wasn't a reunion just for us, most of the women in that group had drifted when my grandma died. I'm young and healthy, I have every reason to be generous with my life and love, thankful, joyous and yet I worry about things that are nothing. Funerals help put in perspective your mortality and how you're living, what you're living for. I want to start living like I am Marj Furgerson's granddaughter.
Next week I'm going to Georgia ( :] !!!!), where I get to be with two women who are equally as great as my grandma, two women that I also have the privileged of calling family, two women that I have mentioned before. Norma and Darla Furgerson, my greats. Norma is my Great Grandmother, she is equally as great as she is grand. Darla is my GREAT aunt. I love them. They inspire my soul and I love spending time with them and in the beautiful area of Jasper. I can't wait.
I don't have any pictures of my grandma and me on my computer, but I do have this one of GG, Darla, and Me from 2007. PS: It was my GG's 92nd birthday. She'll be 95 this July.
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