The Red Leather Jacket: Pearls

Love that is hoarded molds at last,

Until we know someday

That the only things we ever have

Are those we give away.

It’s been nearly three months since my mother in law, Marian Rudberg, left this earth for eternity. I should say Heaven. Everyone leaves the earth for eternity, but not everyone chooses Heaven. Marian is in Heaven.

Marian had a deep faith in God and I know right now she’s enjoying the presence of Jesus. She was a strong pray-er and talked about her Lord and Savior often. Her Bible was well marked and the binding loose from the many times she paged through it.

She lived for nine decades and was 93 years old. I’m facing a new decade in a week or so, and I’m not excited about it. Yet, measured in decades, it doesn’t sound quite so old. We can’t stop time, much as we’d like to.

My mother in law loved her home and the things in it. She made her copper bottomed pots and pans shine with cleanliness. She dusted and polished her furniture to a rich gleam and her home was spotless. She ironed her tea towels and even her sheets!

Marian had a hope chest for each grandchild—boy or girl—and throughout the years, put some of her treasures in there. Tea towels, crystal, a recipe book, a handmade afghan.

When she moved into a one bedroom apartment, there were many things she gave away to family, or sold at a yard sale.

As Marian grew older, she moved one last time to a group home and now her home was reduced to one room, allowing for only a few pieces of furniture. Even those were eliminated at the end when there was only a dresser and hospital bed in the room.

Just last week, her surviving son, Don and his wife Nancy, presented me with something she left for me. It was her string of pearls—real ones—that I know she treasured. I remember her saying at one time, she didn’t want to wear them for they needed to be re-strung and she was afraid they’d break and she’d lose some of the pearls.

I felt a swift feeling of sadness, yet pleasure that she remembered me. I missed her—not the Marian in her last days so much, though she was still that loving person—but all those years she was in my life. More than fifty! It was an honor those pearls were singled out for me. I know she carefully thought about what to give to each person and when she fingered her pearls, she thought of me!

One day, I’ll pass those glowing pearls on to another. But it ’s really other things about Marian I’ll remember than the lovely necklace that belongs to me now. It’s her strong faith in God. Her love as well as her stubbornness and determination.

Thanks for remembering me, Mom. I’ll see you again one day in Heaven. Maybe we’ll even meet at the pearly gates. I know you’ve already seen them—and I’ll bet you’re amazed at the beauty there. I’m pretty sure you haven’t thought once about that string of pearls you left me. You loved deeply and though you were very human, I’d say love would be the best description of you! And I know that would make you happy!

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

I Peter 4:8

What do you want to be remembered by? I’m pondering that question too.

Enjoy your day. And think about what treasures mean the most to you—and what you want others to remember about you.

Here are some photos of Mom, just because it’s fun to see the changes over the years.