Exceptional Mama's last Christmas spent with our family. Just One More Christmas by lynglyng

Mama was much like any other good Mama. She loved her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, her husband, children and grandchildren. She tried to make Christmas as special as she could for all of us. She bought presents all year long and cooked a huge meal even when she wasn't physically able to anymore. But, she was going to make Christmas special if it was the last thing she did. When she found out that she had terminal cancer, she did not think of herself, only her loved ones that she would have to leave behind. She vowed to make it one more Christmas with us because it was her favorite time of the year celebrating the birth of her Savior and spending time with her family. The doctors said that she wouldn't make it another Christmas. She fooled them and made it two more Christmases with us. I received the call from my daddy that the family needed to come now to say our final good-byes. I left my children with my husband and drove to the Hospice House. As I entered the room I saw daddy standing beside mama's bed along with her twin sister, Pat, my sister Pam and brother Ricky. There were three of my sisters boys standing near the bed all with tears in their eyes. The music was low filling the room with melodious sounds of Christmas music that made me think of Christmas in the Smoky Mountains. The immediate family was gathered around mama's bedside. The first day of the New Year she was taken to the Hospice House in excruciating pain with her long journey of fighting the Cancer rapidly coming to an end. The nurse came to check her vitals, she smiled in a very tender way, the way she had been trained to smile at the family members that were about to loose a loved one to the dreaded disease. She put one hand on my daddy's shoulder, "It's almost time. I am so sorry, Mr. McKee." My daddy looked tired, like he had aged about ten years in the past two that he had stayed right by mama's side. Nursing her and waiting on her every minute of the day, only leaving her side to go to the store or to church. He had refused help many times from the kids, saying that he was fine and that he didn't want to waste a moment that they had left together. The sorrow showed in his hollow face and then he did something I shall never forget, he began to sing along with the Christian hymnals that were playing on a CD player in mama's room. We all joined him singing those old time gospel songs. As we sang the presence of the Holy Spirit became extremely strong in that hospital room. The nurses joined outside the door to listen to the family singing. One nurse remarked with a hint of disbelief in her voice, " I have never heard a family sing so beautiful as their loved one is slipping away." The other nurses agreed with her, that they too had never heard such beautiful singing. As I think about the night that mama went home to be with her Lord and Savior, I still have cold chills. She had been struggling to survive for two years now and the fight had taken its toll on her once robust body. Lying in the hospital bed she couldn't't open her eyes and her mouth was open as if she had already made her exit from this world. We had all prayed and asked God to bring healing to her body if it would be His will. He chose to heal her in Heaven instead of here on Earth like we had hoped. His ways are not our ways. We will never understand why some people suffer in this life and others seem to keep their health to their last breath. Every loved one assembled around the bed was filled with pain and grief, if only we could keep our mama here with us and never have to feel that void that was like a hole in our hearts. She left us a wonderful legacy of trusting God, when we couldn't't see His plan. Never asking "why" this happened to her. Her praise seemed to grow stronger as her body became weaker. She loved her Savior The Lord Jesus Christ and she felt that she had run the race and finished the fight. What an impression she made on everyone who came to visit or she met at the doctor's office with her upbeat attitude and peace in the midst of the storm. In her words, "God had already done more for her than she could ever deserve. He had taken her place on that cross at Calvary and shed His blood that she might have life eternally with The King of Kings and Lord of Lords. She would never ask God for another thing and would only offer her praise and trust to the very one who made her. My sister, Pam remembered that mama had told her about a dream that she had about two months before the doctor told her that she had cancer and it had spread throughout her body. In her dream she had dreamt of laying flat in full darkness, looking up and seeing Jesus above her. She reached her hand to Him and pleaded, "Jesus, take my hand." Then she woke up from the dream. Pam asked her son who had brought his laptop along to find that song, " What a Day that Will be When My Jesus I shall See", The chorus goes like this: What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see when He takes me by the hand and leads me to the promise land. We sang along with that song over and over until she breathed her last breath. It was as if we had sung her into the arms of the angels that escorted her into Heaven. I had always heard of a " peace that passes all understanding" and that day in that hospital room I experienced that peace first hand. When she breathed her last breath, I thought that we would all cry being torn to pieces, but it wasn't that way at all. Knowing that she had served God the best she could and that she was in Heaven with God, left us feeling comforted. The Holy Spirit came into the room with our family giving us a peace and strength that only He can give to us in our times of sorrow. My son still misses his Me-Maw terribly to the point that he cries for her at least one time a week. She has been gone for about two years now and we never stop missing her. He came to me crying one day about how much he missed Me-Maw. I told him I had heard a story that when a loved one dies they sometimes send you a red bird to let you know that they are alright and at peace. They want you to know that they are okay so you will go on with your life and live it to the fullest. After I told him that story we began to see red birds all the time when you would least expect to see one. The other night when I tucked him into bed, he said, " Mommy, Me-Maw came to see me today at day care. When I was on the playground playing I saw a red bird sitting on the fence watching me play and I knew it was Me-Maw there with me. " Tears filled my eyes and I kissed him on his forehead and said, "That's right Joshua, Me-Maw was making sure that you were having a lot of fun. You know how she loved to see little kids playing and being happy. She is happy too now knowing that you were playing with your friends and having fun." He said his prayers and I pulled the covers up closer to him and told him good-night. As I walked out of his room I was filled with amazement of how God cares so much about us that He would send a red bird to comfort a little boy who missed his Me-Maw. I don't know that the story of the red bird is true or not. What I do know to be true is that God is good. His love is never failing and His mercies are new each morning. A life lived to bring Him glory is never a life wasted, but a life invested. Recognized Author Notes I hope this story inspires others to live their lives to leave behind a kind of legacy that my mama did.

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