James 4:14

14: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Yesterday my aunt died. She was the wife of my Daddy’s last living sibling. She and my uncle had been married for 70 years.

A few days ago I learned that my aunt was not doing well at all. I had an inkling in my spirit that I should take my Mom up to my aunt’s home place and let them have one last visit as they had been close sister-in-laws for years. Life got in my way and I procrastinated.

Yesterday morning was the day that I decided to take Mom up there but my Aunt died before we got there.
We decided to go on up there to be with my uncle at such a hard time for him. We quietly walked into the back door as family always went in that way. The house looked oh so familiar to me. I had not been there in a long while but it still all looked the same. My uncle was seated in the kitchen and my first thoughts of looking at him was how much he was looking like his mother (my grandmother) as he had gotten older. I even commented to him that thought and he laughed and said, “I should as I was named after her and my uncle”. I had never really thought about that before.

My uncle spoke of my aunt with such words of endearment. He said to me and my Mom of how he would get through this. He said, “I know I will get through it but it is going to be so hard and nobody can do it for me as it is something I will have to do myself”. He spoke of knowing his Lord and about the accident years ago when the car fell on him and how he had been able to hear the doctor and everyone talking about him but he couldn’t speak and how he heard the doctor say that they needed to go get his wife as this young man is dying. He said that Jesus came to him with outstretched arms and that he was about to walk towards Him but then suddenly Jesus put his hands up as to say no not yet and turned and walked away. He pulled through and had always wondered why he had been spared. Just last week he and my aunt talked about this very incident and he had figured it out by now and decided that he had been spared for her, to live and take care of her all these years and to raise those 3 little boys that they had had together.

My uncle then proceeded to tell us something that I will never forget as long as I live. He said that he had never made a decision except for one in all of his married life that he and my aunt had not talked over first as she and he were one and she was a part of him! I sure can not say that for my own marriage! I lay here tonight at 2:30 in the morning just thinking about those words!
The one decision that my uncle made on his own was when my Daddy had called him one day when he and my aunt and their boys were living in Anderson Indiana and told him that grandpa had decided to sell the family farm as he could not find anybody to work for him and it had become too much for him. My uncle immediately told my Dad to tell him no but to give him time to tie up loose ends there and they would be moving back to the farm. That was the one decision that he made without consulting my aunt first and that was a really big decision but she went right along with it when she found out.

There was a little red rent house on the farm and my Dad and Mom and us kids had lived there at one time but later my aunt and uncle and the 3 boys would move in there and they were home again.

Thoughts are swirling of my aunt and how she was a stand in Mother for me at times when my kids were little. My Mom had remarried after my Dad died and my step dad and she were in ministry and traveling. Sometimes I would get in a bind with a sick child or a doctor appointment and I would need a babysitter for a few hours and I would call her and she never told me no. I remember an accident one night and my aunt and uncle came to my house to tell me in person as it was not something that you would want to tell over the phone.

I have so many fond memories of my aunt and uncle and wish that I had spent a lot more time with them. Time is getting away from me and I lay here now and wonder where all the time goes.

It takes death a lot of the time to slow us down. I have cousins coming in today that I haven’t seen in a long long time. They are precious to me and we are all branches on that family tree. We talk on Facebook as seems to be the norm these days but how joyous it will be to see them in the next few days and actually spend time with them.

Yes, my aunt died yesterday but she lived a glorious life and blessed us all with her spirit. She was a jewel and left a powerful legacy behind. We owe a great debt to her!

Until we meet again!