Blessed
As many of you read on Facebook, my mother, Fada Sheek, died on October 5. The last few days have been filled with moving, sorting, and distributing her things. Lots of business and busyness didn’t keep us and our daughters and their families from regaling each other with memories.
As we looked through old photo albums, my girls told me things I didn’t remember about their time with Nana. They told how she let them play with her matching shoes and purses in her huge walk-in closet. I’m sure that’s where they all got their shoe fetish. They told how she never scolded them for running through the house, out the back door, and back through the living room playing tag with cousins in a giant loop. The round coffee table of my youth which had been a sacred ‘do not touch’ item became the surface for their tapping, singing, and modeling shows.
As we flipped through pages of pictures, many of their outfits for years were sewn by Mama. Some years, all the girl cousins including Sarah (who is my cousin’s daughter) were look-a-likes. Lots of serious hamming for pictures went on during that time.
There were some things I didn’t know. Apparently jumping on Nana’s beds in the back room while the adults visited in the living room was a favorite activity – one I would have paddled their backsides for had I known of it back in the day.
As much as they loved playing in Mom’s beauty shop, they hated the perms and bouffant hairdos Mom gave them. I should post those pictures, but I won’t.
But then again…
Under the guise of showing some pretty dresses Mom made for them, I will sneak in one that shows the big girls’ pure ‘delight’ in Mom’s cosmetology skills.
We found cards that Daddy had given Mama for her birthday and Valentine’s Day. Miscellaneous notes and special sayings fell from various devotional books and Bibles. This one encouraged us as we worked.
This morning, I found the autobiography she had started several years ago. I had purchased a new notebook and pen for her and at my insistence, she reluctantly began. She didn’t get very far and missed a large portion of her life I wanted her to describe. However, as I opened the notebook, the large lettering at the top of the first page said it all.
Despite all the hardships she endured, she was a survivor. She readily recounted to people how God had protected her through the years and provided her needs at every turn. She described her life as BLESSED. And it was.
This is from her obituary.
She left a heritage of a strong belief in God and through the years, she influenced many young people as she taught Sunday School classes and led Bible Quiz teams. Fada was a diligent and faithful student of the Scriptures, a life-long member of Assembly of God churches wherever she lived, and often led women’s ministries.
Fada was a talented leader of Home Extension and an extreme crafter whose sewing blessed not only her family but others. She often quoted the saying about idle hands, but her hands were productive to the end.
Psalm 31:14-15 could have been her life verse. “But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say, You are my God. My times are in Your hands.”
Her time on earth is done, but her beautiful life for eternity has just begun. I’m sure as I work through her ‘graduation’, my Katharses may contain a few more thoughts.
Blessings
Kara Beth
