Evendays

Mom lost a very dear friend on Sunday. Her sister, Aunt Mary, died suddenly, unexpectedly, in her home that afternoon. I do not know why it happened.

Mom and Mary would call each other several times a week, burning up the phone lines between Arkansas and California. They talked when Pappy was bad. They discussed Nana’s failing health. They comforted each other through struggles and mourning. And they would laugh.

Though Mom’s been out of Arkansas for 50 years, all it took was the magic of a phone ring for her accent to reappear. When the laughing started, and I’m talking about unbounded, pure joy, go-look-for-another-place-to-read-your-book type laughing, you would think to yourself: nothing can be that funny.

Every three years in the dark of a summer night we’d drive up Jess and Mary’s driveway where two rooms were always waiting for us. She’d greet us with a late night hug and a comment like: Did you see if the Best Western was open on your way in?; or, Was Uncle Terry’s place locked?

I regret I never got to be her host. I’m very sad for that. I owe her and Uncle for Spring breaks and Fall Thanksgivings, for unlimited supplies of chips and breakfast cereals, for long chats around the table. I will miss my Aunt. But mostly I miss her for my Uncles, for Cousins and their families. For Mom. For those to whom she was indispensable, for death has left a crater in their hearts.

We do not grieve as all do. Not because there is a silver lining to death, but rather because there is a glorious one. Auntie died unexpectedly, but ready. She died in the Lord.