This past week was an emotional week for me. It was a week that we will have to face at some point in our life, and although it is never easy there is no avoiding it. At some point we will all be “the ones left behind.”
This past week our family lost a loved one, my Grandmother. My Grandmother was 81 years old, and she lived a wonderful life. She spent the majority of her life married to her best friend and the love of her life. My Grandmother was a woman of God – she always placed her family first and no matter what you were going through in life she always had time for you. She loved to hear about the good times, and success you had had, and she also could provide a shoulder if you needed one to cry on.
As I sat there at her funeral and listened to stories about her, memories that we all had I could do nothing but smile. My grandmother lived, she loved to cook and to spend with her family. She lived for the holidays and spoiling her kids and grandchildren. She was full of life and no matter where she went or what she did you felt her love. So as I sat there, yes I was sad and emotional that she had passed, but I was also happy that she had been able to live a full life. I was happy that she got to spend the majority of her life with the love of her life. I was happy that she was in a room full of people who loved her, and would miss her. She got to experience what we all hope we get to experience LIFE….She got to live 81 years on this earth being a Wife, a Mother, A Grandmother, a Great Grandmother a Friend and a Woman of God.
Not everyone gets to experience a full loving life like what she did. Every day bad things happen to good people – Mothers, Fathers, Husbands and Wives pass away unexpectedly. We all think that we will live this long fulfilling life, but the truth is it could be taken away tomorrow – tomorrow we could be the ones left behind. We could be the son or daughter, husband or wife of a person who died to early.
This is not a sales pitch for life insurance or anything like that – its a opportunity for you to take a step back and to think about your family and all that it means to you. At the end of those 81 wonderful years my Grandmother was surrounded by a room of people who loved her, people who were her friends and those who would miss her. Often times we get caught up in the little things in life that makes us forget about what is most important ………….FAMILY. I would encourage you to take a moment to look at your family, to think about all that they mean to you – and then ask yourself if you died unexpectedly what would happen to the ones you left behind?