Of Life and Death

My Nanny died yesterday morning. Nanny was my dad's mother. I can't say that she was my favorite grandparent, in fact, more often than not the name "Nanny" raises unwanted urges to strangle someone. She never really got along with my mother. She snubbed my siblings and I. BUT...she was my grandmother. She had her moments when she was the grandma that any kid would kill to have. She took me to Sight and Sound in Lancaster, she took me to Dutch Wonderland. She always bought me beautiful jewelry for my birthdays and Christmas. And despite everything, including the wrongs that she committed towards my family, I loved her.
The last time I saw my Nanny was two years ago. She only lived 10 minutes from my parents' house, but I never went to see her. I didn't go to see her in the nursing home when my family went to visit her at Christmas. I didn't want to go because I wanted to keep those few good memories that I have of her as the ones that I will look back at. Not the memory of her not knowing anyone in the nursing room visiting her. I didn't want to see her sick.
It was pretty fast, her decline. She fell and broke her hip early last summer, went home, fell and broke it again, then ended up in an assisted living home. Because she made no effort of her own, the assisted living home recommended her to a nursing home. That's where she lived the rest of her life out. She had dementia. She didn't recognize anyone who came to visit her, in fact, there were days when she didn't even know that anyone was even in the room with her.
I could have gone to see her this past Saturday. But I didn't. You will never know just how much I regret that decision. She may not have known me had I gone, but maybe, just maybe, I could have told her one more time that Jesus loved her and wanted her to belong to Him. See, unless a miracle occured in her sleep, my grandmother died not knowing Jesus. She will spend the rest of eternity in Hell and despite anything my husband tries to tell me, I'm guilty of not telling her ONE MORE TIME.

PLEASE! If your family does not know the truth, make sure you tell them One More Time. You never know when the last time you see them will be.