Memory Monday

One of the things that saddens me most about my mom passing on is that my kids will never get to really know all about her first-hand. I know that one of her desires was to be around long enough for the grandkids to remember her. I'm sure that Jeron and Dylan will...Jadee will remember something...Maggie & Davis probably not so much. Though it is not my first choice, I suppose that second-hand will have to do. I have decided that every Monday I will write about a memory I have of my mom, so that they will be recorded for all the grandkids. I invite anyone else who has a memory or story they'd like to share to do so on their blog or in my comments on Memories Monday. Here goes the first installment...

Yesterday I attended church in Utah with my dear friend, Jamie. It's been a long time since I have been able to attend Sunday School and Relief Society, so the break was great and the Spirit was strong. The Relief Society lesson was on being a peacemaker. The teacher opened the discussion to the class to share examples from our lives of the peacemakers we know. Of course, I had the perfect example and the perfect experience to illustrate, but the subject matter is still a little too close to share with a bunch of people I don't know (so I'll share it here instead...at least if I don't know you, I don't know that I don't know you!).

(I will write as though I am sharing with my kids and niece and nephew...since this is mostly for them.)

Grandma is a peacemaker. She was also a school teacher. One of the reasons she was such a great school teacher is that she was a great peacemaker. Love and peace go hand-in-hand. She loved teaching and she loved every child who walked through her door. She even loved their parents, and she knew just how "handle" the hard ones.

After her first cancer diagnosis back in 1997, I took over for her as a substitute in her 1st grade class. She had a great group of kids that year and it was a lot of fun. There was one little girl in the class who was particularly bright and quite a busy-body. Her mom was as busy as the little girl, and she caused me a lot of grief with phone calls and visits to the classroom. This little girl, it seemed to her mother, did no wrong. I didn't know how to handle this mom very well. She mostly made me feel nervous and defensive. Grandma, on the other hand, was a professional at handling these types of situations. One night I was telling Grandma my woes about this little girl and her mother. She listened intently, then said, "I'll tell you what to do the next time she calls. You say, What can I do for you Mrs. So & so? How can I help? She will have no need to be defensive and by offering to help her, you'll be diffusing the situation." Peacemakers don't find fault, they are not defensive, they love and respect others. Grandma is a peacemaker. In that short conversation, she taught me that love and respect go a lot further than being right, that blaming others accomplishes little if anything, and that by serving others we can make peace.

I taught school for nearly 8 years after that experience, and the lesson I learned that night served me better than any education course I ever took. There are many other examples of Grandma as a peacemaker...and many Memory Mondays to post about them coming up. Until then...be a peacemaker!