Homebound

4th of July 2012

Hey everyone,

This post was inspired by one of the most beautiful people I have ever (probably will ever) know. Her name was Flo Worden.

Flo was one of our families' first friends upon our arrival to Tennessee, so she's connected to us in a really special way. She was one of the few who adopted us out-of-place northerners from the get go, and continued to be an important part of our now 7 years here. 

I think I'll remember her for things like her Thursday tradition of making homemade cinnamon raisin bread, which she almost always gave away and which we were often recipients of. I'll remember her chatting with my mom as the four of us girls sat around her house eating ice cream sandwiches. I remember planting begonias and petunias outside her house and sitting in her living room under the childhood portraits of her three deceased sons, listening to stories about them. I always liked that jar on the counter that said "Joe's Stuff." Joe was her husband, whose funeral she would also attend in her lifetime. I'll remember the magnet on her refrigerator that she loved because on it were little Texas blue bonnets that reminded her of home. 

All of these are cherished memories but for me, what makes Flo set apart from anyone else is that she was a woman of life in the midst of death and tragedy. As mentioned, all her immediate family passed away before I even knew her. I can't imagine being Flo and attending those funerals. The grief alone should have been enough to destroy her. She shouldn't have been so beautifully kind and tenderhearted and loving. She should have been hard and cold and calloused. But she never, ever was. In fact, she gave life to everyone she encountered and everyone I have ever heard talk about her can't do so without a smile. She was ever interested in you. How you were, how school was going, how the prom dress was coming along. I rarely heard her talk about herself. She loved without limit and lived with hope. A true gem in the midst of so much despair. 

The reason I named this post "homebound" is because last week, just before she passed away, my Aunt Julie mentioned something that really struck me. We were talking about Flo and how we didn't think she'd be here much longer. We were both sad, but she said that in a way, she wanted Flo to go and be with her boys. It got me thinking.

Isn't it sort of crazy that we can be reunited with our families after we die?

Let that sink in. 

I don't know about you, but this sort of amazes me. I guess my impression of heaven has subconsciously felt lonely. Kind of like starting at a new school or any other change where, you know it's for the best but at the same time you'll have to start all over with making friends, which is never easy. I mean sure, we'd have eternity to do so, but still. I never really thought about the fact that when I get to heaven, I'll get to be there with my grandpa who I knew and loved during my short time on earth. And Flo. I'll meet her husband and her sons. And... I think loneliness will be the farthest thing from my mind... And that's without even going into the fact I'll be with Jesus. Face to face. Finally home.

God is so good. 

There are only a few people who I can name who just radiate a love bigger than themselves. Flo was one of those people and I will miss her presence in my life. I just hope that someday I might emulate her and have her faithful, loving heart.
~Paula

1 Corinthians 13:1-13
"If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be buried, but have not love, I gain nothing. 
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 
As for prophesies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 
So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."


 P.S. How do you feel about the outcome of the superbowl? How about that Budweiser commercial with the wittle baby clydesdale?! ADORABLE. Those are always my favorites. ^.^