Granny

Kirk's mother, Peg (Margaret) Miller, "Granny," passed away around 10 pm Wednesday evening. We have peace that she is now with the Lord. 

She had a stroke on Sunday evening at her home in Lamar, and was life-flighted to a hospital in Springfield, MO. We all went to see her at the hospital there on Monday to say goodbye. On Tuesday she was transferred to the hospital back in Lamar, and died there peacefully after being visited continually by family members as well as several friends from town.

Her health had not been good for the last few months. She was receiving treatment for lung cancer, and a few weeks ago she had kidney failure and was in the hospital for over a week. She was struggling with her recovery from that. But still, her stroke on June 11 was a shock to us all.

Two months ago, Granny was able to witness Eva's baptism at Grace Fellowship on Easter Sunday. One month ago, she got to see her two oldest granddaughters, Carmen and Brianna, graduate from Lamar High School with honors. Living in the same town with four of her six grandchildren, this devoted grandmother made every effort to attend all of her grandkids' events, even driving the two hours to Kansas City to see Simon and Eva in swim meets, performances, and Grandparents' Day at school.

In September 2016 Peg was married to Earl. All of her grandkids were in the wedding party; Eva was delighted to be a flower girl. This dear man has treated Peg like a queen, and brought her so much joy!

When we go to Lamar for the funeral, we will stay at Granny's house. Known to the family simply as "the house," 500 Reavley Drive in Lamar, MO has been the gathering place for the last several years: Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Year's, 4th of July, and birthdays. When Simon and Eva would go on their much-anticipated visits to Granny's house, she was usually down in the kitchen each morning when they woke up, ready to make them pancakes or serve them coco puffs cereal.  I keep thinking how different it will be when we walk into the house this time. Granny will not be there to say, "You BETTER not be trying to sneak in here without giving your Granny a hug!" Granny will not be there to read Eva a bedtime story. She just won't be there in her house. We know this will be hard, but we are praying that it will be a special time of closure for the family.

In addition to being a woman of faith, devoted wife, mother, and grandmother, Peg had a special relationship with her daughters-in-law: Brenda, Marsha, and me. She would play along with our good-natured teasing about her Depression-era tendency to save and re-use everything, including birthday candles, ziplock bags, foil pans, and plastic containers. Sometimes we would chuckle among ourselves when scrubbing out foil pans at her kitchen sink. And I'll admit, we threw a few things away when she wasn't looking! I think she knew. She said to us recently, "I know that when I go to meet my Maker, the first thing you girls will do is go and throw all this stuff away!"

Well, it was not the first thing we did. But I predict we will laugh and cry when we go through her kitchen and see the birthday candles that have seen so many family birthdays, the ziplock bags that contained leftover Thanksgiving stuffing, the foil pans and plastic containers that she saved in order to bring meals to friends and church members in need. All these things will remind us of her love, and of the joy she experienced with family and friends, and that she also brought to others.

I will close with a verse shared by another great woman of faith, my mother:

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
    and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
    they shall obtain gladness and joy,
    and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 51:11