Mama Stone

My Mama Stone grew up with thirteen brothers and sisters.  My Mama Stone raised three girls on her own while her husband did tour after tour in the Navy and Coast Guard.  My Mama Stone has suffered the loss of a daughter and a granddaughter too soon.  My Mama Stone loves Jesus with all her heart. 

 

This incredible woman is a prayer warrior, a forgiver, a survivor and a fighter.  Glaucoma is taking her sight and Parkinson's is taking her mobility.  But still, she walks the driveway most days and sits on the porch with her Bible every day.  She prays for her family and friends and is the most ferocious stationary bike rider I've ever seen.  She loves to hug on her grandchildren and give them candy.  We are so blessed to have her in our lives.

 

Last night I went to check on she and Big Daddy (my grandfather) and sat with her for a short while on her front porch.  She told me that God had been leading her to read Psalm 119 that day.  So she pulled her Bible in her lap and followed along with her finger as she read and I listened.  I looked over and noticed that her Bible was upside down.  I didn't say a word, just smiled, because I knew she was "reading" from memory. 

 

I sat and listened as she told me how she was no good at witnessing to people.  She tried to tell her mama about a Jesus moment she had one time and her mama asked her if she was a Jehovah's Witness.  Country people back then didn't talk a lot about their faith.  We laughed. 

 

I learn a lot from this dear lady who is always in perpetual movement that she can't control.  She has never stopped "taking her exercises" since she was diagnosed with Parkinson's years ago.  She never gave up on her husband who didn't accept Jesus as his savior until my Mom was an adult.  Even when his presence in the home, when the girls were young, made things much more difficult for her, there was no talk of leaving him.  No divorce.  People who grew up during the depression didn't throw things out and get new, they fixed the things that had.  Jesus walked very close to my Mama Stone back then, as he does now.  I'm so thankful for her faith, her living witness and her candy.

 

Iris Ilma Parrish Stone.

 

What an amazing lady.