In Memory

Ethel Scivally

1/23/1913-10/19/2010

We buried my great grandmother this morning. Her death was not something to mourn. She lived 97 years and up until the last year or two she lived independently in her own home. I feel so blessed to have known her, loved her, and had her in my life for 33 years, I do not know too many people who at 33 years old still have a great grandmother, let alone 2. Although "Mother Scivally" (as she was known) is gone, I still have one more great grandmother alive who is also still living independently in her own home. Mother has left behind such a legacy! She was what a grandmother should be and although she will be missed my heart smiles to know that she is in heaven with her husband, son, grandson, and many others who departed before her. She married just prior to the Great Depression and she knew what it meant to struggle and sacrifice. She raised 4 successful sons and endured the death of an infant son. She was a farmer and rancher all her life and it was nothing to see her at 90 years old out in the pasture working cattle. She loved to play jokes, play in the creek, fish, and garden but ablove all she loved the Lord. The only difficult thing about her death has been watching my grandfather who is in ill health himself cry and look like a little boy because I guess no matter how old you get it is never easy to lose your mother. One of my great grandmother's son's, Uncle Don, wrote a lovely poem about her as he watched her deteriorate over the past year. I think it is such a fitting tribute.

Today I sat be mother's bedside

She is so frail and weak

It seems like only yesterday

That her life was at its peak.

We would work in the field together

My brothers, mother, dad, and me

The time we worked together

Was how life was supposed to be.

Mom would work until eleven

Her time was stretched so thin

She would prepare a meal for hungry boys

Then yell a piercing scream to call the family in.

Married just before the depression

Mom and Dad struggled to get ahead

Their tales of working sun to sun

Just to keep the family fed.

There was fierce determination

A better life to provide

And the fact of her success

I now look back on with pride.

Life was more than work

She knew how to have some fun

From playing in the creek with kids

And showing how snowball fights were done.

Through the years of joy and heartache

She has lived a Godly life

And she serves as a good example

Of mother, friend, and wife.

Memories are our vessel

To turn back the hands of time

As I remember my childhood

When she was in her prime.

Now I'm looking forward

To a home almost complete

When life here is finished

And we stand at Jesus' feet.

In my mind to see the family

Complete as it used to be

Health problems all behind us

For God has set us free.

Yes, today there is a sadness

And a teardrop in my eye

As I watch mother's failing body

Her little boy will cry.

But there's victory in the morning

And the sun will always shine

As I hear the Master calling to the family

"Children, come and dine."

Don Scivally