The Virtues of Grace
designed by Feathers in the Nest
copyright 2010
fibers--Week's Dye Works
32 count Lambswool linen
mother of pearl vintage buttons
framed by Me and Thee
December 2010
I designed a sampler this weekend in remembrance of my maternal grandmother, Grace Gordy Coleman. Her birthday would have been this week and she had all the virtues of her name, plus many others. I got to spend 8 years with her and I watched her go through at the end of her life a diagnosis of brain cancer, surgery, radiation and chemo in a 3 month period of time when the angels accompanied her to Heaven. I believe this to be one of the reasons I went into the medical field as I watched her suffer so much at the end and this was in the 70's.
Ironically, she also died at the end of December. I called her "Mama Grace". These virtues were "in her fiber" every day and what a role model she was! She introduced me to many things including shopping for the matching purse, shoes, and outfit, the "powder compact" to primp with, and lotion.......many of the things I enjoy today too. When she spoke, she meant what she said. There was no guessing with her. My step- grandfather, who is also deceased, loved her like I've never seen a man love a woman and in retrospection years later as I grew to be an adult, I found out that her first marriage was the opposite. She had many struggles but grew positively from them. She was well-respected in the very small town she lived in and I accompanied her to church on weekends I stayed with her.
On visits with her, I would sleep with her and she would say prayers with me and I believe we blessed so many people before I finally went to sleep until I was silly. She had patience with my nightowl nature which has stuck with me through life.She encouraged my love for music and we would dance at all kinds of music in her living room. She was in no way perfect but she lived the virtues of grace. When she died she left her rings and watch with my stepfather on her death bed and asked they be given to me when I became an adult.
I treasure them now and wear them almost daily as a reminder of strength during trying times.
I hope you have someone who made you feel special too, even if for a short while. That's what life is all about. Not perfection, but the "fiber" that is in our being from one soul to another.
