Next Chapter: September 2023

OBITUARY

https://www.fratzkejensen.com/obituaries/Clara-Samuelson/#!/Obituary

February 27, 1922 - August 20, 2023

Her lesson was given when I was about five or six years old. One night, I was visiting with my older sister as we fell asleep. She was telling me about my father’s mother, a grandmother who I never got to know. I asked what it meant that our grandmother had “died,” and that’s why I’d never get to see her. As my sister tried to convey the concept of death to me, I realized death looked like the baby robins that fell out of trees onto the sidewalk. As we continued our visit, something awful dawned on me, and I asked her if our Siamese cat, Mr. Stubbs, would die. Yes, he would, someday. My thoughts jumped from Mr. Stubbs to my grandparents, Adolph and Marie, and yes, someday they would die, too. Intense fear set it. I couldn’t imagine life without them. The fear deepened: Would Mom and Dad die? Yes, sooner or later. Then the big one: Would I die? Yes, sooner or later.

That did it. Sobbing hysterically, I ran downstairs to the dining room, where Mom sat on a couch, reading, and taking notes for the college classes she was taking. Once I was able to catch my breath and verbalize, I asked her if we were all going to die someday. She calmly told me, yes, but not for a long, long, long time. During that long time, I would learn many things that would lead me into my forever life, my eternal life, and when the time came, I would go into it without fear because of what I was learning in Sunday School. Her words soothed me. Learning the way to heaven would help me to do something about this dilemma called death, something all of us will have to deal with someday.

My mother’s lesson is profound in its simplicity. It touches on faith in the infinite Power of Love to take us beyond our timebound lives into our safe eternal home. Mother believed, and now as the goldenrod turns yellow and a new schoolyear begin, she has entered the Kingdom of Eternal Love.

Momisms and Lessons from Grandma

· Oh my stars

· Let's keep this between us

· You don't need all that sugar -when making Kool-Aid

· Save the wrapping paper!

· Ish!

· Learn one new word each day

· (Mom always kept a dictionary next to where she sat)

· I wonder what new thing I will learn today

· Even back then she had banned books and had to remove In the Night Kitchen because of the picture of the nude boy. Her grandchildren loved the banned book and have purchased it for her great grands

· She gave her 3 year old grand a book about the Big Bang, who then challenged the Sunday School teacher who was sharing the Genesis creation story.

· When Clara fell in 2017 and was still on the floor waiting for the ambulance, she suddenly lifted up her head and said, "Don't forget to take the garbage out...The truck will be here soon.

· Time marches on...So, face the music.

· The human condition is not perfect...We do what we can at that moment in time.

· Still with the living?... Time to wake up and get going.

· I feel too good today, so I guess I won't be dying tomorrow.