Family

I am up early today. I decided to drive my grandmother up to Chattanooga to visit her sisters and their families. It is a day trip. It will exhaust me. But it is worth it.

My grandmother is having a total knee replacement on Wednesday. The whole family chips in time at the hospital and aftercare facility. Her recovery will probably be long. This is her second knee to be replaced. They say it is a harder recovery.

So, we are making this trip knowing that it will be awhile before she can get back up there. He brother in law is quite sick. I haven't seen him in a while. This could be our last time to visit with him. The heaviness of this fact weighs on me as I prepare for today. He is a man that I respect a lot. More like an uncle than a great uncle. One of my great aunts passed unexpectedly earlier this year. She was one of the youngest and oh, how her boys mourned. I will never forget their mourning cries and how they loved their Mama. That was the last time I was up there.

I just thought of a visit that I had with her quite a few years back. We were looking through old photo albums. There were four sisters in their family. She had some pictures of them sunbathing. I had never seem them! Let me tell you, my grandma and her sisters turned some heads in their day. They certainly were lookers!!!

Think of us today as we drive through the green hills. As I do my best to listen to my grandma tell the same stories over and over. As we visit with loved ones. As we mourn a little bit. And as we celebrate life a little bit.