A Good Day

A week ago today we were on our way to Texas when we got the news that Mike's mom, Arnelia, had already left this earth. Mike's sister Jeannie was with her. They were listening to Christian music and had just heard the song she requested for her funeral, "I Can Only Imagine."
Mike is the youngest of four--eight years younger than Jeannie, who we stayed with. I'm glad we were already on our way, because she needed to see her baby brother. Most of the funeral plans were already set, but the 2 of them finished up the details the next day, and then we took advantage of being in the big city by shopping the rest of the day away! We found some bargains and everybody got something.

All that shopping wore Mike, the girls, and our neice Andrea out!

On Tuesday we drove an hour north to Oakhurst, a small town outside of Huntsville. Mike's parents and grandparents are buried in an old country church cemetery there. For a long time, if you saw a spot where you wanted to be buried one day, you just put a rock there with your name on it and it was saved for you! We saw Bartee (Arnelia's maiden name) and Malone (her mom's maiden name) graves all over it.

This sign is so odd to me!

The pastor of the church turned out to be a friend of Mike's from his Texas A & M days, who also had served in the Northwest when we were there! I love when God arranges things like that.
All the family got together and walked over to the gravesite, and Arnelia's hospice chaplain led the service. He did such a good job sharing personal details about her life that I got a copy of his notes to keep. He mentioned how she grew up in that area, sharecroppers on a cotton farm, and about her and her brothers and sister singing gospel songs on the local radio station, and how she passed down her instinctive style of cooking to Mike and his brother Jeff. He also led us in singing "Rock of Ages" and "I'd Rather Have Jesus," and played Mercy Me's "I Can Only Imagine," which made me cry--not sad tears because of her being gone, but happy tears at imagining how she is now! Better than she's ever been before! (I also cried when her grandchildren each went up to the casket and laid a rose on it...and my little Rebecca turned around and started bawling. I wanted to go hold her, but before I could get to her she was surrounded by cousins and sisters loving on her.)
After the service, Mike mentioned to his friend Bryan, the pastor, how we had once tried to find Raven Hill, where Arnelia grew up, but never could. He said he could take us right to it, so we loaded up all the cars and he took us there! We don't know exactly where her house was, but we passed several old abandoned houses in the woods, and Bryan also pointed out spots that used to be old homesteads. It was so fascinating to me. He also said he still has lots of church members who are Bartees, some of whom probably grew up with her. Hopefully we're going to go back and meet some of them one day.
Raven Hill is not a town, just an area people refer to. Originally it was Sam Houston's plantation, and he took us to the memorial marking that.

 

The grandchildren

The children

The whole family!

Uncle David told the kids about how Arnelia and her brothers and sisters used to entertain themselves by working together to pull a pine sapling down toward the ground, then one of them would hold on to it, the others would let go, and they would fly through the air! They had to quit when her brother broke his wrist-

The plantation was owned by another family by the time Arnelia was growing up. We explored the old barn and the bois d'arc trees, took some family pictures, told some family stories, and took Bryan back to his church before heading to a Mexican restaurant for supper. I sat near most of my neices and nephews and got caught up with them. After supper everyone was going their different directions home (except us) so we stood in the parking lot a long time, "saying good-bye." The kids found a field and started running around playing tag! Right when I grabbed my camera to take some pictures Ethan stepped (barefooted) in a bunch of cockle-burrs, so the game was over.

3 of my neices with their "mini-me's" (Kay and Jessica, Andrea and Mikayla, Callie and Rebecca)

It's funny to me how a day that sounds like it ought to be sad--and was touched with sadness--could also turn out to be so good. The weather and scenery were beautiful, we had sweet time with family, reunited with old friends, and worshiped our Lord, honoring one of His daughters who'd gone home. It really was a good day.