Aunt Gladys Takes Flight

They tell me the angels are hovering, ready to carry her home. I keep telling myself that there’s a party being planned and that the great cloud of witnesses is eagerly watching, but I cannot stop the tears. She’s been a part of my life from the very beginning to this present moment. 

She is My Sweet Mama’s sister next to her in age. She married my daddy‘s brother. She and Uncle Jesse have been the ones I go to when my heart has been hurting to see my own mama and daddy. They’ve probably seen me cry more than anyone else in these last 10 years (beside my husband). I know it’s time for her to go home, and I’m sure her family is “singing to her of Heaven” and I want to be glad that she knows the Author and Finisher of her faith— 

 And I am! I am!!! 

 But I have long dreaded this time, this day. And I am missing my own mama so intensely. This morning, I asked my beloved cousins, Shirley and Naomi, to get close to her ear and whisper that I loved her and that she should tell My Sweet Mama that I love her when she gets there. 

I don’t really know what happens on the other side, but I believe that My Sweet Mama is watching and eagerly anticipating her arrival as part of that “Great Cloud Of Witnesses!” Once again Aunt Gladys will hold her beloved sons, Robert and Joseph who have been gone now for almost 48 years. She will see her own Mama and Papa, and her oldest brother, Harold, and her oldest sister, Orpha, as well as My Sweet Mama, already there. 

She told me just last week that she wanted to go to Heaven, so she’s getting what she wants. She’s getting what she has given her 93 years to, and that is to see the face of Jesus and to hear “Well done, Good and Faithful Servant”. And so I’m not sad for her. She has lived faithfully and well, she has laughed and loved and forgiven and for her, this is sweet victory. 

But how very much we will miss her.

https://youtu.be/MMu6vy8rODc?si=SyZWjw28mtSIoLKX

About 30 minutes after I wrote this, I received word that Aunt Gladys had Gone HOME.
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Psalm 116:15