Two-week Recap

These last two weeks have been FULL.

BRIEFLY:

• Oct. 24, my last living grandparent died.  
• Oct. 31, I was up at 3:00 a.m. after 2 hours of sleep, flew to Charlotte, NC, where I was picked up by my in-laws.  I unloaded and repacked Frances' car, drove to Columbia, put 200 pounds more of her stuff into the car, went to the church's block party, drove back out to the house, unloaded and repacked some more, and finally collapsed into bed at about 9:00 p.m. 
• Nov. 1, I went to church with my inlaws, saw friends, and did final rearranging of the car.  
• Nov. 2, I packed up and drove to Black Mountain, NC, and went to Grandma's memorial, after which there was a reception at the church, and then a family gathering at my aunt's church across the mountain in Old Fort.  After that, I got to hang out with my aunts and uncles and some extended family for the evening.  
• Nov. 3, I met up with my friend Brenda, from middle school and high school years...and had dinner with Kathleen, a friend from Bible college days, and after dinner got back in the car and started driving...stopping for the night in northern Virginia.  
• Nov. 4, I finally arrived home around 4:00 pm.  

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 Grandma Lucile Ratchford Hestir was an amazing woman.










Known as "Lucy", Grandma received degrees from the University of Texas and from Purdue University.  She worked as an aeronautical engineer, inspecting planes for release for combat duty in World War II.  She served as the Director of Personal Faith and Family Life for the Board of Women's Work of the Presbyterian Church U.S.  She finished her career acting as Volunteer Coordinator for the Texas State Department of Human Resources.

 She was mother to 4 children.
Grandmother to 7...I am the oldest.
Great-grandmother to 8.

She was a strong leader in a time when women were supposed to be homemakers.

She outlived her son Brent, and her husband, Bluford "Blue", as well as her twin sister, Louise.

The celebration of her life was on November 2, 2015, at Black Mountain Presbyterian Church.

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I was able to be at Grandma's memorial service, and to spend some time with the extended family, which was really good.  I was also able to catch up with some friends in the area, and then began the trip back to Massachusetts, driving my daughter's car, which was loaded down with many of her belongings.

I arrived back home on Wednesday afternoon, and welcomed a visit with a wonderful friend from Bible college days, Marcie Gustafson.  Marcie was able to stay with us for almost a week, during which time we were able to see the movie "Poverty, Inc.", and go see a very good rendition of the opera The Marriage of Figaro, put on by the Treble Chorus of New England's "Hands on Opera!"  We were also able to catch up on where Marcie is ministering these days (Durban, South Africa), and what God is doing there.  We were sad to see her go, but look forward to keeping in touch!

This week has been one of rest with spurts of craziness, including work for the two older girls, play practice and opening night for Justin, band practice and a football game for the marching band, a day off of work and school on Wednesday for Veteran's Day, and trying to catch up on laundry, email, and other errands.