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June 24th, 1907 - October 15th, 2004...


My Grandmother died....I don't have words today. The span of four generations is in this picture, that is about all I can do.



(I love you Mommie Essie)

UPDATED: October 23rd, 2004

I am working from my laptop in a hotel room in Indianapolis. Renee and I are up here for her cousin's wedding. It was really nice, the whole time I thought that it was so much nicer to get together with family for a wedding or child birth, than what it is to get together for a funeral. Mommie Essie's funeral wasn't the gut-wrenching experience that I thought it was going to be. I was sad, but I was happy in the fact that she lived 97 years of relative health and happiness.

It was not surprising that there were so many people at the funeral. I have to admit that I was a little jealous to hear that so many people called her, "Mama Essie", of course that is a cheap takeoff of the real thing, "Mommie Essie" that my sisters and cousins called her. She was so many things to so many people, but it seemed that I had tunnel vision my entire life. I knew that she was wonderful, but I never looked far beyond my own relationship with her. She made me feel so special, so wonderful, so loved, that I never dreamed that she had energy to devote to other people. I should have known though. Mommie Essie was wonderful.

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