Since ordering a tombstone for my mother last month, a tombstone that will soon be placed next to my father’s in the cemetery adjacent to the Church of the Ascension in Hagood, SC, I’ve found myself thinking often about her parents and my father’s parents.
Despite two world wars and the great depression, my grandparents lived in seemingly simpler times when congregations were locally focused and small; stores and everything else were closed on Sundays; travel was an ordeal to be avoided; parents, teachers and policemen were respected; manners were the norm and “no” meant “no”; education beyond grade school was a luxury few could afford – they couldn’t; work was honorable, laziness was not; babies were born at home and the dead were laid out there as well; life spans were short and families were the heartbeat of society . . . three cheers for such simpler times!
Their love for my sisters and me knew no bounds. They circled us in prayers as passionate as their hugs and looked at us with eyes attuned to see far beyond the present into that special future where grandparents’ hopes and dreams are realized.
My grandparents may have lived in simpler times but they were not simple people; they were wise, wise in ways I didn’t begin to fully grasp until I became a husband and father. For not until then, did I begin to appreciate the legacy of homespun, Biblically-rooted wisdom my grandparents had instilled in my parents. I pray that I might leave my children and grandchildren such a treasure trove!
