Nearest and Dearest: Gen-Gen.

Saturday we went back to my mother-in-law's grave for the first time since we buried her two years ago. It sounds bad to admit that but going there I knew would bring nothing but great pain for my husband who still struggles with her death two years later. For me, there is nothing there. Her quick wit, infectious laugh, love of the South, propensity for peanut butter crackers and Coke for breakfast, and her ability to immediately tell you who any ancestor of the family was and where they came from doesn't reside at the Oakland cemetery. As I told the girls, everything we love is with God and the rest is just a shell. I carry her in my heart always. She drove me to absolute distraction sometimes but I loved her and she loved us. Some of us more than others, her sons became less important than her daughter-in-laws and her grandchildren took precedence over all of us.

But I digress. Saturday her many historical societies took time to honor her. They told stories about her and they laughed when they spoke of her love for the rules and always following them and how much fun she was on their trips to the archives and to Washington D.C. The boys spoke of the mom who cheered them on at soccer games, reroofed a house and fixed plumbing, who helped turn them into the men that they are today. I know that she would have enjoyed Saturday in the brisk sunshine watching her grandchildren run pell mell across the cemetery despite our best efforts to keep them quiet and still, laugh as they tried on hats and posed at the teahouse where we had lunch. I actually know that she did enjoy it because I am sure she had a front row seat. We miss you and love you Gen-Gen.

Truth Ashby Gamblin

January 10, 1944-June 1, 2006