In Memorium

I had a really snazzy post about laundry I was planning to be my next post, but in light of current events, plans change.
Obituaries are, in my opinion the most impersonal words in a daily newspaper.  They are short, give basic details on times and places and survivors but tell very little about the person who's death they are announcing.  That does not do my friend Shirley McKinney any justice.  So before the brilliant minds at the Herald Journal have their say, I want to do my best to pay tribute to one one of the greatest women I have ever known.
Shirley McKinney was an amazing wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.  To me however, she was actually none of those things.  She was in effect simply a friend.  The difference was that Shirley was not simply a friend to anyone.  She was ever so much more and to have been loved by her was to truly know God's love embodied in a human being.
Her porch was home to many, and as a young teenager there was no more safe and wonderful place in the world.  I spent many Sunday afternoons and evenings sitting in the swing with a blanket wrapped arund my shoulders and her arms around me.  Her heart was always open, her ears always listening and even when scolding was fully warranted it came in the most gentle and loving of forms.
In the past few years I have not stayed in contact with her like I should have.  Time seems to weave us in different directions throughout the years.  One thing has never changed, I could always drive up in that drive way and know that I would be met with more love and understanding that I deserved.  Many times in my adult life when I have been confused or scared I have taken the trip in my mind back to that front porch and felt her arms around me, praying for me, comforting me.
Tonight Shirley is on a very different front porch, rejoicing with the Savior that she taught so many about.  She loved to sing, and everyone who heard her loved to hear it.  Tonight she is singing in a new choir and one of these days we can all go and join her.  Until then, we can grieve her passing but give praise for she is waiting for us with the same loving arms she met us with here on earth.