great loss

It's a great loss losing the people of my parents' generation. They were children during the great depression, and learned to value things. Mom always hated to waste anything. I have to laugh how she'd see if I could eat just a little more so I'd be eating the last of some food so it wouldn't get thrown out after sitting too long in the fridge. They learned to budget well so their rather large family would have enough of everything. We thus learned to value things more. We'd be excited to own things even if second hand bc it still meant having something otherwise unaffordable. 

The girls in our family learned to sew so we could have outfits that were trendy at an affordable cost. Mom taught us how to sew. Among many other professions I could have become a costume maker for film or theater with the education of our innovative clothes making. I actually designed clothes for high school theater with that education at home, for two plays and for a Russian dance troupe that danced in a high school competition bc we learned to alter patterns to suit our desired clothing style. 

Mom took us each fall to see the changing leaves out at the edge of our Minnesota town. So we learned to appreciate nature and many intangible things. Mom was so helpful when we traveled across country to CA or the east coast, making sure we had our meals taken care of.  And again we got to see so much natural beauty out there, Arizona, Utah, California.  Someone we knew grew peaches at their home in CA. 

Our parents led us to those intangibles, and it's sad how many younger generation people don't realize how great this generation was. So many memories come rolling back in the end of my mom's life. 

It's a huge concern, subsequent generations being left behind to deal with the enormous problems we face. Every one of these precious souls of the generation of my parents lost causes me to wonder. I guess it's time to put trust in God like never before.  The Bible says we mourn the loss of a person's life but we don't mourn as we would if that person is a soul that does not die in the Lord. The soul that dies in Him will live again, and we will see them again, so our mourning is only temporary. Thank God for this hope. 

Yet the temporary loss feels like an eternity, doesn't it? I can't believe I've come to the end of her life, of our family's sweet reality of security and love, of our matriarch, and I know that while I am still here it will seem like a forever loss. Goodbye my dear mom. There are no words.