A Tribute to Hallie

My Grandma Hallie, my mom's mom, passed away Memorial Day weekend following a stroke. She was greatly loved and is greatly missed. The family wanted somebody close to Grandma to say a few words at the funeral but none of us could seem to get our thoughts or our words together and knew we certainly couldn't hold it together to speak at the funeral. Well, my dad ended up typing out a "Tribute to Hallie" and Matt read it at the funeral. It brought my mom flying down the stairs in tears to hug my dad when she read it! I think it meant a lot to mom that her mom meant a lot to my dad. 

Here is the tribute that he wrote:

I wanted to share a few thoughts about Miss Hallie from a son-in-Iaw’s perspective.  I love my mother-in-law.  You probably don’t hear these words very often.  But it’s true.  I don’t know if I ever told Miss Hallie, but it’s true and I should have told her.

I first met Miss Hallie over 50 years ago.  Bob and Pam and I would go fishing and come back and clean the fish and then turn them over to Miss Hallie.  Miss Hallie took care of all the details in the kitchen.  She always made me feel welcome and loved.

Miss Hallie was kind, sweet, gentle, compassionate, generous to a fault, funny and amusing.  But she was no pushover.  Bob knew that and her kids knew that.  When Bob would push his opinion a little bit too far Miss Hallie would tell him to kiss a part of her anatomy that wasn’t her lips.  Her kids would get the “kiss it” comment occasionally as well.  I interpreted the “kiss it” comment to mean “I love you, but I don’t care what you think I’m going to do it my way.”  In the hospital the other day Julia was sitting with her face close to the bed and teasing Miss Hallie about something.  You should have seen Miss Hallie try to swat Julia with her right arm that she just couldn’t get to move.

In the earlier years that I was part of the family I remember all the time that Hallie spent taking care of her mother, Mary and then later on her father Esse.  I’m convinced the Lord added extra years to Miss Hallie’s life to make up for all the years she spent taking care of her parents.

Miss Hallie loved her grand children.  She loved to watch them play ball.  I’m sure she holds the unofficial record for the most ball games attended by a grandmother at Lawrence Academy.  At holiday family dinners she made sure she prepared everyone’s favorite food.  Her kitchen counter looked like the K & W cafeteria.  In later years when Pam, Julia and Jackie had to do much of the preparation they tried to get Miss Hallie to pare down the menu but they usually didn’t have much success.

And her grand children loved her.   Julia showed me a comment that Will wrote when he was a little kid.  If he could have one wish come true he wanted to move to Midway to live with grandma Hallie so he could play with his cousins.   We found a short story written by Elizabeth when she was in the second grade called “Casey’s Flower”.  On the title page it was dedicated to Grandma Hallie.   I’ve never known a grown man who loved to visit his grandma as much as Wade loved to visit Miss Hallie.   You could tell he didn’t make the visit because it was an obligation but because he loved her and she was so much fun to be around.

You can tell a lot about a mother by how her children turned out – Pam, Julia and Wood – loving parents, dedicated teachers, a postmaster, fire chief and farmer, all active in their communities and churches.  Great people to know and be around.  And look at the way they took care of Miss Hallie in recent years as her health failed.  Julia leaving her family in Wilmington to come help as much as possible.   Miss Hallie always had a to-do list for Wood.  And Pam stopped by almost daily on her way to and from Lawrence Academy.  Pam will probably never plant another tomato or okra plant again but she sure planted a lot for Miss Hallie.

We are all better off for having Miss Hallie in our lives.  We will miss her but we won’t forget her because of the legacy she leaves us.  I see parts of Miss Hallie in her children and in her grand children.  She may have even rubbed off on me.