Linda

My oldest sister Linda was one of a kind. She had a pretty rough life, some of it her fault, some not. She was a very young widow and single mother before she was twenty years old, but she finally got things together and made a life for herself and her kids. She also worked at Tinker when her kids were growing up. That meant she left the house early and was away from home about eleven hours a day.
She loved her family; she was generous to a fault. My dad used to say Linda would give away her last dime. Her life was full of struggles: financial, health, personal, but one thing was certain, she belonged to the Lord.
When she was in the hospital before she died, I spent more time with her than I had in years. We had many conversations about the regrets that she lived with. I kept reminding her that they were covered in the blood, but she would bring them up again.
Of all of my family members who are now in heaven, I'm most assured that Linda is living it up. Here on earth she had lost her eyesight, was bound in a wheelchair because of crippling arthritis, lived with constant pain. Now I envision her walking upright and seeing God's creation with perfect vision and completely pain free.
Linda loved to cook; that's the thing I miss most. I could call her and ask for a recipe or how to cook something, and she was ready with the instructions. She loved having her grandchildren around. When Crystal, Erica, and Allison were little, they loved going to Nan's to spend the day with her. They made crafts and cooked; she made their days special.
I still have Christmas ornaments that she made. They always make me smile because usually there was something not quite right about them. Linda couldn't see to make them perfect. One of them has a deer glued into a large acorn. The deer is backward. When I'm putting the ornaments on the tree, I get to laugh every year about how tickled we all got about that. We called her Linda Magoo.