Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you so. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.  John 14:1-4

Late Monday night, my Aunt Dottie Wooten died from a heart attack.  I'm attending her funeral today in Snellville, as we celebrate her life, acknowledge her death, and entrust her to the care and keeping of God.  Between her and my dad, they had over 180 years between them, and they died less than five months apart.  Even at 89,  her mind was razor sharp, She still loved to play bridge and was doing so regularly with two of our church members, George and Pat Petros. 
 
She was always fiercely independent--and rightfully proud of that. She was a feminist before the term became popularized, or at least she believed in her own wherewithal and inner strength.  She also genuinely took an interest in other people.  Like most of us, she experienced some setbacks in life, but in the end she felt she had overcome them to make it successfully on her own. In her physically declining years, she continued to live by herself  at her home in Stone Mountain until this year.
 
I personally was blown away that she insisted on coming to Dad's funeral back in May despite her frailty and her own poor health. She barely could walk and most of the time was in a wheelchair. And you could readily see she was in acute pain whenever she got up or moved on her own. She did not moan and groan about her ailments. But she would not be stopped...at least not until death. She continued to live as best she could with incredible enthusiasm and gratefulness.
 
I confess that I am now feeling "old," as Dottie was the last living relative of that generation on either side of the family.  With the one exception of a stepmom,  I now have no more living grandparents, parents, aunts, or uncles.  The family torch has now been passed to a new generation.  May Dottie rest in peace in the hands of her heavenly father.

Prayer for Today

O God, we thank you for all the saints, including Aunt Dottie, who have passed from this life to the next and can now rest from their labor. Uphold them and each one of us with the sure and abiding truth that life does not end with death, but begins its new adventure within your eternal presence.  Amen.