One hundred and three

One hundred and three years is a long, long time to wander this earth. But, that's exactly what this lady did that I buried on Sunday. Yes, Sunday. She lived the last 80 years in a small little town out in the middle of nowhere. The town loved her so much that they had their morning service at the local bible church and then just all stuck around for a lovely send-off for a lovey young lady. I say young because she was. If you can be young-at-heart, she was. It really was a surprise when she died.

She met her husband when he moved to Detroit for work, back in the 1920's. He rented a room in her fathers house and the rest, as they say, is history. Together, they moved out to where he came from and stayed there until last week. He left her some years ago but she just kept going on in that small town. She had to stay to take care of her sister-in-laws that had lost their husbands as well. What a blessing to be "all there" after so many years.

That got me to thinking about everything that someone of 100+ years would have seen in their lifetime. What an incredible century. She would have seen some of the surrounding small towns grow to be small cities and Detroit to be a large city. She would have seen other small towns just close up and disappear right off the map.
What a thrill it must have been to add a bathroom on to the house or get a telephone or TV. They said she loved to play the Wii. To watch the auto industry in America grow to be what it was and then to crumble like it has. To watch astronauts land on the moon. I could go on and on.

The world was virtually the same for many thousands of years. And the last century has been just a whirlwind of new inventions and developments. We are truly very lucky to be living right now. It really bothers me to see so many people as miserable as they are when there is so much to be excited about.

This woman brought a lot of sunshine to a lot of people over her 103 years. That's something that more of us need to do. It will make us all happier.

I'll leave you with this quote from Sir James Matthew Barrie...
"Those who bring sunshine to others, cannot keep it from themselves."