Today I gained a new hero. It was neat to hear what people remembered about Grandma at the special family service before the funeral. She wrote the missionaries every week. She loved to learn (including ham radio, morse code, and email) and she loved people. Her world was soo BIG because it wasn’t all about her. I thought I’ve been learning something new and amazing when I learned that study is so that we can enjoy God’s big world, not show off. But listening to the stories about Grandma is what helped me even put that part into words! She loved piecing quilts–made all of us grandchildren one. She is a natural role model because our personalities and giftings are very similar.
Grandma wanted the message at the funeral to be evangelistic, and not all about her. It was, too. I enjoyed the originality of the song selection–which fascinated me because fancy singing was not her thing. Luke (my brother) led a congregational song (”My Faith Looks Up to Thee”), and a group a special group sang “We have this moment”, “Somewhere in the skies”, “It only takes a spark”, and other songs I don’t remember because they were actually heaven songs.
At the graveyard it was a simple commital service with singing, shoveling and a few words. There is something so satisfying about the earthiness of helping shovel. I wished I had a camera with me when David Yoder and his young grandson were shoveling side by side, the grandson with a small shovel. How right it seemed that he would already know about death, and that our children get used to got to funerals at an early age. My aunt Grace brought quite a few roses, and I got to put one on the grave. Once I saw a few others planted theirs instead of laying it there, I went back and planted mine upright. 
Grandma’s grave is beautiful–roses on the heaped dirt, with a simple temporary wooden marker: Edna Nisly, May 23, 2010.
Somehow the mute beauty of the roses was deeply powerful. This reminds me of something that was said at the funeral: Grandma’s prayer partner a couple of years ago, Marilyn had an idea for the Prayer Partners Banquet, the theme of which was Servant Beauty. She had wanted to take a picture of Grandma (maybe her hands?). Wow. I don’t know that I had even put those two words together yet: servant + beauty, but they go well together. And Grandma loved beauty. Flowers and quilts. A giving woman.
Rose Mary
Pictures by Verda
