Happy Birthday Nanna!

Yesterday was a special day in our family- it was my Nanna's birthday.  It was a day of fond memories and smiles through tears... I am sure some of you know this bitter-sweet feeling.  I wish you could have known my Nanna because you would have loved her.

My Nanna was a very much loved lady in her community.  She wasn't very big - she was shorter than my mum - but she stood out where ever she went.  Maybe it was the speed at which she walked (I could never keep up with her).  But I think it was more because she radiated Christ where ever she went.  She would stop strangers in the street to pray with them or to tell them about Jesus.  She also had one afternoon a week when she would take the children'
s Christian radio program.  I used to love trying to tune in to hear her.

Nanna put a lot of energy into telling us about Jesus too.  Every time we visited her or she visited us,  we children would pick two books for her to read aloud to us: one from our bookshelves, and one from the Bbile.  There was one time she read through the book of Romans with us.  The other book was often the Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories books as Nanna was rather fond of those.

If there's one thing I remember about Nanna it was that she was always trying to get us to eat more.  Even if we had protested several times that we were full, she would keep offering seconds (or thirds, or fourths,...) until we fairly had to get up and leave the table.  She was extremely fond of mashed potato and would dish it up nearly every night.  I remember one evening when Jess and I ganged up together and asked Nanna as she was beginning dinner preparation, "Nanna, could we have baked potatoes tonight?"  She considered this for a moment before replying, "No, I think we'll have them mashed tonight!"

But the most memorable thing about Nanna was her personal relationship with God.  She was up at 6:00 every morning and we didn't see her until past eight.  Those 2 - 2 1/2 hours were spent in studying God's Word and in prayer.  Nanna was a pray-er.  She kept whole lists of things to pray for and I know that she prayed for each of us kids every morning.  She was so at peace with God and so at peace with her condition that the week before she died, when she was in palliative car, she was still asking us, "Is there anything I can pray for?"

The last words Nanna said to me were, "I love you.  Keep reading your Bible."  She died 13 days before my thirteenth birthday.

My Nanna leaves a legacy of faith and prayer and restfulness in God and in who God is that I hope and pray I can pass down to my children and my children's children through to all generations.