Friday August 11 2017  SHE IS ON HER WAY TO HEAVEN!

One of the angels in our family is on her way to heaven.  I wish I could be with her when Jesus beckons her to her heavenly reward.  Aunt Esther is 89 years old and lived alone in her little house alongside the highway until yesterday.  Sometime between 8:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. she fell.  Her sister Vela last talked to her about 8:30 a.m. and then Vela received another call at about 11:30 a.m. from Esther’s daughter-in-law, who lives next door, saying Esther had fallen outside next to her back screen door area and was on her way to the hospital.

My news is second hand news so I don’t know all the details or specifics but in the course of her treatment in the small town of Russellville, Arkansas it was determined that due to a brain bleed she would go by ambulance to Little Rock Hospital for surgery to stop the brain bleed.  Esther’s hip was also broken.  That was the news I received yesterday.

This afternoon while I was on the phone with Vela she received a call from Esther’s son saying that Esther was on her way back to Russellville via ambulance.  Her condition did not merit having the brain surgery and she will be admitted to Hospice care in Russellville.  Her condition is too precarious to do either surgery and it is not expected that she will live.

Esther has been an amazing woman all her life.  She has lived through the sorrow of outliving three husbands and burying four of her six children.  She never gave up on life or turned away from God. 

Since moving to Wisconsin 30 years ago Dave and I (and our children when they were younger) visited Esther in Arkansas almost every year.  I have been so blessed to have had so many aunts in life and I love them all.  Esther stole my heart when I was a young child.  She became an angel to me because when I was with her she always spoke so kind and gentle to me, as she did to all children.  Her voice was soothing, her smile genuine, and even as a young child I knew she was special.

The poem below was written while I stayed with Aunt Esther when I traveled back to Arkansas for the disbursement of mama’s belongings in 2010.  Having lost my mother I was more aware of the importance of my aunts and uncles.  I observed Aunt Esther and watched her routines.  I saw her boundless desire to accomplish; her limited energy source; and her utter delight at having company to talk to.  She is one of the most giving people I have ever had the blessing of knowing.  This poem was just my observation of her life seven years ago. And oh how I dearly love my aunt.  She was just as beautiful, kind, and gentle then  as she was when I was six years old.

 

I would say that Esther is a true example of a woman after God’s own heart.  Soon she will be home with The Lord God whom she has loved all her life.  My heart sings for her joy when she meets Jesus face to face and at the same time tears slide down my cheeks.  I grieve not for Esther, but for my loss.  She touched my life in ways few people have been capable of doing.  I love her now and I will always treasure the nuggets of gold she leaves behind in my heart.

 

My Aunt Esther

Kathleen Martens

May 26, 2010

http://www.visionsofpoetry

 

I watch the slowness of her movement

Continually busy

Never idle

Hands gnarled by time

Carefully prepare the socks

To slip over her feet

Worn by miles of use.

Elbows crooked

Shoulders limited

But no task goes undone.

Everything takes longer,

But no need to worry,

It all gets done.

Only slower.

Words are evasive

Memories take time to surface.

Her fingers pull the stocking at the toes

And the shoe is slipped on.

Bruises line her arms,

Her blood is thin.

Strokes have invaded her brain

But her work doesn’t cease.

It’ll all get done.

Only slower.

Her eyes are alert

Her laugh lines deep

Her laughter comes quickly

Her love spills out.

She enjoys her company

And cooks with a vengeance.

Slowly

Steadily

Her work gets done.

Only slower.

Early morning coolness

She is one with her hoe,

Each row tended in her garden.

Flowers pruned

Soil freshened

Woodpile burning

With yesterday’s trash.

Mounds of request for money

Preying on the generosity of the elderly

Going up in smoke.

Her day is long

So much to accomplish.

It all gets done.

Only slower.

 

The following poem was written after Esther found an old Bible she wanted to give to me.  It was a Bible she read and she wanted me to have it.  She had signed it after reading it and below her name was my mother’s signature signifying that she too had read through the entire book.  I am doubly blessed to now have the opportunity to read the same pages both she and my mother read.  Someday I hope to write my name beneath my mama’s.

The poem is a description of my day and was written at the end of a busy day.  I remember the long walk I took on a back country road, my trip to Wal-Mart to have my eye glasses repaired where I had to wait in line for a long time, Aunt Vela’s house for a big pot of soup with her daughter and my sister, then home to Esther’s house for our farewell dinner that evening before leaving for home the next day.  Esther always made her company feel extra special with her delicious meals.

And the crown of that day was the Bible she gave me.  She remembered it late in the evening and looked and looked for it because she wanted me to take it home.  I didn’t understand at first the significance of it also having been read by my mother and Esther wanted to offer it to me. I love it.  But I cherish it even more because she too had read it from cover to cover.

 

GOD’S SPECIAL TREASURE

By Kathleen Martens

May 27, 2010

http://www.visionsofpoetry.com

Thank you Lord for showing to me

The hidden treasures you want me to see.

 

The butterfly flitting on paper wings,

A tucked away nest where a little bird sings.

 

An outcropping of rock under towering oak,

A quiet refuge where Your love I soak.

 

A pot of soup, homemade cornbread

Prepared in love, my soul Vela fed.

 

A gentle old man, with God’s love on his face

Allowed my long wait to show Your grace.

 

Then “home” to family, to sup at the table,

My farewell dinner made by hands so able.

 

And those same hands, with love wrote my name

In her old worn book, with precious words of fame.

 

An old Bible, falling apart,

What a treasure, for my New Year to start.

 

Her hands held the book, each page she did turn,

As she read God’s word, His message to learn.

 

And at the front of the Bible written below Esther’s name,

Was that of my mother’s, her eyes had read the same.

 

When I saw mama’s name it made me know

That someday in that book, my signature would show

After I too read, the words she caressed,

And turn the pages she read, as her love she confessed.

 

What a wonderful gift from Aunt Ester so sweet,

Another treasure from God, His bountiful treat.

 

Thank You God that Aunt Esther is, and always will be in my heart, because of the loving influence she has modeled for me during my life.

Thank You God for all the golden nuggets of wisdom I have learned from her.

 

GOOD NIGHT AND GOD BLESS YOU!

P.S.  Due to blog’s length I will will not include my daily poem.

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