A caring person.

Usually when I think of someone who is "caring" I think of a person always going out of their way to do nice things for people, who go the extra mile for folks, who walk with you when you're down, who listen to you when you need to be heard and to have a spirit within them that speaks of compassion and encouragement.

Well, our friend Mildred, even in a wheelchair, was such a person. She was all of these things and so much more. She battled cancer more than once. Diabetes took both her legs. Pneumonia was a common occurrence. Yet she continued on caring for people.....with all of those debilitating things that would have done most of us in a long time ago!!!

Her funeral was a time to hear about her life and to celebrate all that she was to her family and friends. It was beautiful to hear her son-in-law give her eulogy. How many mothers-in-law can brag about that accomplishment - having an "outlaw" have the last word on her life. But it happened. Then her granddaughter spoke about her Grandma......and being a grandma of a beautiful granddaughter myself, that was more touching than anything else. I think at funerals, we tend to think about our own lives as well and about how we're doing when it comes to caring for people and where we are when it comes to how our spiritual lives are faring. We wonder. We know that a service like this will one day be for us.

Yes, a funeral is a time for reflection. It's a time to give us another opportunity to make a choice in life - to believe in the resurrection or not. To have faith in a God we can't see....or not. Mildred made that choice a long time ago. A good choice it was, too.

At the end of the day when my life is over, I would be honored to have someone say that I cared about them. That would be a beautiful tribute.

So, I will think about Mildred this week and in the weeks ahead. I will miss her. Not many people ask how my children are doing and tell me they are praying for them.....like Mildred did, every time I saw her.

I have been blessed, as my children have, by Mildred Donald.

Peace to her memory.