boquetebella

There was a celebration a day or so ago in Heaven when my mother-in-law Ann Mccleod returned to The Father.

She was embraced by those loved ones that went before her and after 87 years on Earth there were many, some quite understandable – parents, grandparents, best friends and those gone much too soon – her children Dwight, Joel & Gerald.

My courtship with her son Joel (her firstborn of 11) was extremely quick as we dated and married in a 3 month time frame so there wasn’t any time to get to know her right away and at the time I met him, he’d been estranged from his mother for a number of years due to a great many factors.

I was raised in a family where being close with my mom was akin to breathing so I made it my mission to encourage my husband to reconnect with her.

Mom was a product of North Carolina, Southern in a lot of her ways but combined with a life lived in “far flung” locales like New York, Texas & Omaha she rose above circumstances that might have stopped another parent in their tracks. Some of the decisions she made may not have been the best but like all parents know – the blueprint is not always planned out clearly.

She was extremely soft spoken but once she decided to let her guard down, she’d become a fountain of conversation. I wish I’d kept a notebook of the many cute & clever witticisms she used.

I was her daughter in law for 30 years and then her daughter for 12 when her son – my husband passed away unexpectedly.

In those first few months of grieving she took me in.

The last couple of years have not been kind; my once independent mother-in-law was diagnosed with a malady that robbed her of her vitality and cognitive abilities.

Yeshua has told us, to be absent from the body is to be present with The Lord.

Therefore, I chose to rejoice that her pain and suffering is no more.

May her memory be a blessing 💔