GOOD FRIDAY by lesa

My Mommom ~ Marian Updegrove

My daughter~ Marianna Parnham

I have lots of Easter activity that I will be posting, but I hope those reading this blog will stop for a moment to read this one too.

My childhood was tumultuous at best. All I really need to say is that there were not many "safe" adults in my life. Thank God there was one.

This is a picture of my Mommom (Grandmother). She was and always will be the most significant person in my life. She was a person from another time. Friends and relatives would drop by and hang out around the kitchen table. There would always be dessert. If I were lucky it would be shoo-fly pie, my favorite. There was ALWAYS Sunday dinner, too much food and not enough seats. Two of us always had to sit on the organ bench.

I could write forever about her, but let me say this, when we moved to Florida Craig and I spent every summer at my Grandparents home until my Poppy passed away. Then my Mommom moved to Florida. She was never really comfortable here, but she wanted to be close to my Dad, her only child, and her grandchildren. I was the only girl, and without a doubt she doted on me. She was my best friend, and I was hers.

When I had no where to live before college she took me in.

When I was told unkind things, she canceled them with the positive. When I was told I was unlovable, she told me she loved me most of all. When I was discouraged from going to college she told me that I needed to go and gave me every penny in her savings account-$300.

One night in Gainesville I got a phone call from my Mom telling me that my Mommom was extremely ill and I had to come home right away. I immediately called my Dad (they were divorced) and started telling him things I wanted him to tell her until I got home. He started to cry and said "Your Mommom is already dead".

It was Good Friday.

Now I know that the date of Good Friday changes every year, but I have never been good with dates, so i just remember that my Grandmother died on Good Friday, the day a piece of my heart died too. She gave me all the positive things I have today. I know I gave her love, laughter and happiness too.

The second picture here is the best way I knew to honor the most significant person in my life.