The Pink Suit

She was tiny. My dad's mother. He says he used to pick her up and put her up on a fence post to tease her.

When I was a child I remember that she smoked a lot of cigarettes. She answered the phone with a funny accent "elllllll-o?" she'd say.

She used to go to the big society parties in fancy dresses with custom jewelry. I still have some of that jewelry. I think she was Southern. Even though she lived in Ohio. I think that's why I always wanted to move down South. There was just something classy about her.

My dad's dad died when he was 17. I never met him. (Well, my dad says I know him because my dad is exactly like him). So my grandma eventually re-married. When her second husband died. She showed up (now this was the eighties mind you) in one of those one-piece dresses that looked like two. With the ruffled waist. The poofed shoulder pads. The top was black and white striped. Pencil style skirt. I'm sure she wore heals. And an ivory hat with a black band. She looked great.

My dad walked in and said "Ma- are you buring a husband or looking for one....?"

I think she was looking... She was funny like that. She was tough.

But the greatest story about Grandma Miner was that she came to know God a year before she died. When she committed her life to Christ, she decided she needed to read the whole Bible.

So I would sit and read to her from Genesis, Exodus, etc. She even made me read each one of the "begats" to her. She'd say, "I can't keep them straight. Slow down, honey." So we eventually bougth her the Bible on tape.

My sister was nine when she died.

She died of cancer. It was a long battle.

I remember walking down the stairs in our home.

I remember hearing my dad's voice in the kitchen.

I don't remember crying. I'm sure I did.

But, I do remember she was buried exactly how she wanted to be.....

in her pink suit....

We went to her house a few days later.

The tape in the tape player was on Revelation

She had finished the course. She had run the race.