Reminiscing...

We were recently traveling for regular appointments, and ventured on a slightly different path from our normal route.  This detour allowed a bit of site seeing and re-visiting some old stomping grounds from my childhood.  Funny how things can change so much, but still be the same.  See this church?  That was my grandmother's church.  She died almost 20 years ago now, but that church somehow brought some of those memories of my childhood back as if they were yesterday.  This quick "drive by" picture just is not nearly adequate for the story it tells me.

The darker part on the right is what I knew as that church, the part to the left has been added on some time more recently than Grandma's funeral, but I do not know when.  Even though it looked so different, it was still the same.  That warm, welcome place with so many years of confirmation pictures to thumb through in the poster size flip folders that hang on the wall.  I am sure they have a technical name, but I've never known what that may be.  Most of the aunts and uncles were in there somewhere, if we took enough time to look.  This was the place where many quilts were pieced together for birthdays, graduations, weddings, or just because.  Grandma and her "church ladies" as we all knew them, were always busy doing something to help others, and they often worked as a team.  There were Mother's Day Brunches that were served by the men.  For many years, Grandma won door prizes because of the size of our family.  I can still remember all of us dressing up and going...us "girls", our moms, and then Grandma.  What a treasure she had, we always filled several seats.  I remember the laughter, the smiles, the warm welcomes, and the praise for her large family...there were, after all, 14 children to her credit.

Just a mile or so down the road is the cemetery where my dear Grandmother's body was laid to rest, but for some reason, the church is the place that tells her legacy to me.  Thinking of all the baptisms, the confirmations, the prayers that happened there for her family.  I stand in awe of this small town church and all the events it has held for our family.  Even more so, I stand in awe of the legacy of a dear woman who made this place as important as her home, and took her family there as often as she could.