Letting Go: Living Without Mama...Life Before and Beyond Grief

It was a long ride...and yet it was short

Some say you had a long life and this we understand, but a heart knows neither time nor age when grief grabs hold of your hand. Bonnie Jennings

"Mama somehow was always able to find pleasure in her life among the thorns. She focused on the rosebuds...always waiting to bloom. During those times when the thorns were very prickly and painful, the image of that blooming rosebud stayed in clear view of her lens of life."

"As we dealt with the intensity of our grief, we began to realize that there was something more being exposed here than just losing our mother. When Mama was with us, we found much of our strength through her, the woman we saw push through so many obstacles in our childhood and throughout her life. Now our earthly childhood savior was gone. All of our past experiences from childhood flooded into this mixture of grief. Memories of our father, long gone but not forgotten, lay heavy on our minds and we began to realize that Mama was the clasp that held our family together, that held our past together. Our relationship with her had a dynamic that we did not fully understand until she was gone."

Motherless daughters, we entered a new realm of life filled with heart-piercing grief as our lives continued on without Mama's presence. Her journey became our journey to share. We reached back in time to discover more about the woman we called Mama and who we were in her.

A woman of little means, Mama's wealth was vaulted in her faith and knowing her inheritance was eternal life in the Kingdom of God. We never really die. We go from this life to eternal life - from walking and running to reaching for Jesus and being eternally healed. We are truly blessed to have such a beautiful destiny. This became luminously evident to us in the gift Mama gave us as she passed over into heaven.

As you camp out reading these penned words, our hope is that you will be inspired, find comfort, laugh, release healing tears, find a closer walk in faith, and find rest in the many messages of the seasons of life within these pages.

"Then...Mama pulled her hand away with great power and reached up to take the hand of whoever was there to show her the way to her eternal home. Mama was at perfect peace with...Letting Go."

"Your boundary lines mark out pleasant places for me. Indeed, my inheritance is something beautiful." Psalm 16:6 GWT

"Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended." Isaiah 60:20 ESV