We will be headed back to Florida in a couple of days to celebrate the life of Dorothy Guidry, my mother. As a part of that service I have been asked to write out a memory that I have of her. There are of course many individual memories that are cute and maybe a little angsty. There is the time she was chasing me (in fun) and I headed out the storm door, missing the handle by inches, my hand went through the glass sending us on a trip to the nearest ER. I remember how quickly the nurse in her came out as she wrapped my arm and instructed me to put pressure on the wound. Her quick and calm response kept me from panic and you can be sure that I soaked the injury for all it was worth for years (If you have seen White Christmas you will know what I mean…)
There were strings in our string beans, hidden gifts on birthdays, Christmas scavenger hunts. I remember her chain smoking as we waited for the movers to come during one of our many moves (she quit before I was a teenager). I remember her patiently working with me to send a tape (mini reel to reel!) to my Dad who was posted overseas. However my greatest memory of her is not any of these events. It is a quality. My mother pursued the heart of Jesus. She loved and adopted people, just as He does. This love was without conditions and the adoption was freely available, it only needed to be accepted and there was a tacit understanding that this adoption extended to our family.
Whether it was the woman under the couch, the girl with the injured heart or the eleven year old smoker who would bruise me repeatedly standing outside our church, she brought them into the love of Christ in our home. Some of her adopted family will be sitting in the memorial service on Friday. Some could not accept or persevere in their adoption and passed from view and some ended tragically bringing tears that few saw. Some were (briefly) boyfriends or girlfriends but the love and adoption was never withdrawn. Some are husbands and wives who stood by her side during these last days of life here on earth. She has in this adopted family Peters, Pauls, Zaccheus’s, Mary Magdelenes, Marthas and even a few Lazarus’s. She has blessed so many and we have all been blessed in return.
This Spirit led heart guided our choice of church family. We were never a “denomination”. She taught us to seek the place the Holy Spirit would have us serve, not necessarily the place where we felt most comfortable or the place that served us best. Our church family consists of Anglican,Lutheran, Baptist, Pentecostal, Independent, Calvinist, Wesleyan and Armenian members literally all over the world. This was not born of an inconstancy of belief but from a solid faith anchored on the Rock that allowed her to grasp the width and breadth of the Kingdom of God as few do.
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Enjoyed all the beautiful tributes you all have shared. Still sorry for your loss. But how satisfying to grasp it was a life well lived, a path that was more than a walk, I can hear the echos of love, laughter and more importantly all the things that never pass: our faith and hope and love. We will keep you and your family in our prayers and look forward to meeting your beautiful mother someday.