On Sunday, May 25th, my Grandma passed away. Unfortunately, I was in Ukraine instead of at home, so I was unable to be with my family for the funeral. This was so hard, but I knew that I had to finish out my Race. I wrote something for my sister to read at the funeral and I figured that I would post it here, in memory of that beautiful lady. I wish all of you could have known her, but hopefully this will give you a small piece of how special she was.
One of my favourite things about my Grandma was how she was always quick to share her adoration for Jesus. I can honestly tell you that there was rarely a time when she wasn't talking about the Lord's faithfulness in her life, and I highly doubt there's a person she came in contact with who didn't experience Christ's love through her.
I remember when my sister and I were young – we were staying with Grandma and Grandpa for March Break and we had made a trip to the dollar store just because it was the dollar store and the dollar store is awesome. We were standing in the line waiting to pay and the lady in front of us was short 25 cents. Grandma quickly reached for her change purse, handed over the quarter to the cashier, and proceeded to strike up a conversation with the young lady she had so casually helped. I remember that she ended up boldly working Jesus into the conversation. What began as a simple gesture of lending 25 cents to a stranger easily moved into Grandma sharing her store of God's love in her life. I think of that anecdote often, and even though it seems so small, she encouraged me in my faith so much, years later, without even realizing it at the time. That beautiful woman lived her life with the sole purpose of being Jesus to those around her — friends, family, and strangers. I would call her to talk and she would say nothing but encouraging things to me, pushing me to run harder and faster towards my Heavenly Father. I only hope I was even a little bit of encouragement to her – even a fraction of the encouragement she was to me.
When my parents called me to tell me that my sweet Grandmother had gone to be with the Lord, I was in Ukraine – and let me tell you, at that moment that was the last place I wanted to be. I wanted to be curled up in the comforting arms of my family – I wanted to be able to grieve with my loved ones. But Dad spoke words, through his tears that reassured me of where I need to be: "Kaitlyn, you have 2 months left of this thing. Grandma was and is so proud of you and she would want you to finish this thing out strong." So that's what I'm doing.
At this moment I'm in Poland, getting ready to hop on a plane to Africa for 2 months. I've cried my fair share of tears for the loss here on earth of that wonderful lady, wishing that I could be home with my family. But I'm also so excited to finish these last 2 months of my missions trip strong, remembering the life of my Grandma as I live out the love of Jesus to every person I meet along the way, just as she did during her long and fruitful life. Even after I return home, I hope to live my life with even half the intentionality as my Grandma did during her life – living out Christ's love in every single aspect of her beautiful life.
So right now, I grieve the loss of her here on earth, and also celebrate her new, fully life in heaven, running around on two legs with Grandpa on one side and Jesus on the other.
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." (2 Corinthians 5:17).
