Summer of Goodbye’s: Grandma Carla

One of my all time favorite weeks ever in my whole life was the one I spent prancing around the Bay Area with Paul and HolleeAnn, 5 year old Reese, toddler Quincy, and baby Corbin.  We stayed a couple nights with Paul’s mom “Grandma Carla” and Jim at their beautiful home on a SF Bay inlet in Petaluma.  By day we took the larkspur ferry into the city and played and in the evenings we came back to Carla’s and were given the royal treatment and then  woke each day to steel cut oats and farmers market peaches, and spent lazy mornings listening to Carla talk on the phone to everyone she knew while she had her morning pot of coffee.  Her voice echoed through the entire house and the air felt familiar and comfortable and wonderfully welcome. We watched baby birds hatch in a nest built in the wreath on her front door. She pointed out a funny seagull eating a French fry at lunch and narrated his thoughts for us. The whole week was just sort of magical and much of it had to do with Carla’s prescription for us to mindfully savor it. 

Carla knew and lived hospitality and it was a good life of loving and ministering. She and Jim visited our family here in Arkansas several times and always made a point to come down to Paul and HolleeAnn’s to see us when we were vacationing in Ca. She loved my children, loved narrating and watching Corbin eat, and loved to get fried chicken with us at Monte Ne. Carla never knew a stranger, always preferred a country road to the highway, stopped at every roadside attraction and left with a story about whatever company happened to meet her there. We will forever quote her using a deep Carla voice. We miss her presence on the earth, but as Nico says, “now I have a guardian angel to watch over me every day.”  

We’d better be good.

A few weeks after Carla’s passing (she fought a long battle with cancer), our highlights magazines came in the mail. Carla gifted these subscriptions to the children a couple years ago, and it’s always the best surprise for the kids when they get the mail. Carla’s love and hospitality continues to bless our home.  We take time to enjoy the little things the way she did, in her honor.