Grandma's Visit

Having Cliff's mom visit was so good for our family. After all these years, I was able to spend some quality time just chatting with her and getting to know her...something I've never really been able to do before.

Something I already knew about my mother-in-law, was that she has not had an easy life. What I didn't know were all the details and exactly how tough it really has been.

When she was a little girl...about 8, she had measles that went terribly wrong. Somehow the infection got into her sinus cavities and impacted. In those days this was a very serious situation and her parents were told there was nothing medically they could do. A young doctor arrived on the scene and talked them into some very risky surgery in an attempt to save her life. It involved drilling 4 holes into her head to remove the infection. She was hospitalized for a year and had to re-learn to walk & talk.

Several years later, she quit school in the 10th grade to marry the love of her life.

They were together for 3 years when he got a job that involved traveling. He was tragically killed in an auto accident. On the rebound, she remarried to Cliff's birth father, who he never knew, as they divorced soon after Cliff was born. When Cliff was 2, God blessed her with the man Cliff knows as his dad, Willie. Willie was a kind and generous man who loved Sarah and loved Cliff. They had 2 more sons together. While Cliff was away at Navy boot camp, 2 weeks away from graduation, Willie had a massive heart attack and was killed instantly.

Not long after Willie's death, their house caught on fire pretty much destroying everything in it.

Sarah then met another kind and generous man named, Jerry. He loved Cliff's brothers (who were still at home) like they were his own sons. Cliff's youngest brother was only 8 at the time and was just plain mean and ugly to Jerry, trying to run him off. But Jerry's meekness and kindness prevailed and Bill was won over. 3 years ago, Cliff's brother, Henry, who is my age, had a massive heart attack and died. And a year later, Sarah lost her beloved Jerry very unexpectedly but very quickly to cancer.

No, her life hasn't been easy but if you met her, you'd never know all the heartache that is behind her warm, very southern personality. I discovered how much I appreciate, admire, and have come to love this woman I am honored to call my mother-in-law.