A Legacy to Carry On

 

I'm sure pretty much everyone thinks their grandma is amazing, but Grandma Marce was something special.  I loved spending time with her, especially sleepovers on the blueberry farm.  She always had something interesting to do -- picking blueberries into coffee cans and bringing them back to the house to make blueberry cake, making a homemade pizza, or using a big sheet of plastic and the garden hose to make a slip and slide for us grandkids.  (How did we not end up in the ER?)  I remember one time she asked if I wanted to make a milkshake.  I remember thinking: "Is that a thing?"  Up until that point, I had thought that all milkshakes came from McDonalds.

She was always sewing something or mending something.  An image of her that I will always remember is at the sewing machine with her mouth full of pins, working on one of those Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls that we all loved to pieces...literally.   

There was one day she took me with her to the real estate office and set me up at a desk with crayons and a coloring book -- introducing me to coworkers and clients.  I felt pretty big and important that day. 

I loved listening to her stories of life on the farm with the big Didier family...stories of the pony, chores, baking, special sibling relationships, and caring parents.  She said her dad called her a wiggle box, which is not surprising since she was never one to sit still, even in her 90s.

But my favorite story is one of the family dinner table.  Imagine how long that table must have been, how lively the dinner conversation.  She told me that as older siblings grew and moved out, everyone moved down the table.  They knew when you got to the last chair, you were in the hot seat.  It was time to get married or join the convent.

Well, we all know which path she followed and I couldn't be more grateful for all that God so carefully planned for her adult life.  After all, without her vocation of married life, this whole family wouldn't be here today.  And yet, I see in her that same servant heart that she shared with her nun sisters.  She embodied that humble service to others that Jesus calls us all to.

She was always busy, but she was busy doing things for others: sewing, making alterations, dolls, dishcloths, hosting friends, and visiting others.  Remember all those bears she made and donated to the children's hospital?  And all of these things she did so humbly -- waving off her efforts as insignificant.

I know I don't have to remind you of the multitude of amazing quilts, so numerous that when we gathered only a portion of them on her 90th birthday, even she didn't believe that shed made them all.  But it wasn't the quilts themselves that we so special.  It was the love that went into them. My mom has often said you can feel that love seeping out of the stitches when you wrap up in one.  That was no accident.  Grandma rarely made a quilt before its future owner was determined.  She knew who she was stitching for.

And as thrilled and proud as we are of our handmade quilts, she was immeasurably more proud of her children, grandchildren (and great grandchildren).

Her life was a colorful patchwork of joy and kindness.  Because of her huge heart and unpretentious nature, she has left us with much more than memories, dolls, and quilts.  She has left us a legacy to follow, a legacy of generous, loving, humble service to others...an example that is surely celebrated today in heaven.

Marcella Merriman

May 17, 1927-November 28, 2020