Today…

My cousin, Mag, as she is affectionately called was told by her grandchildren that her daughter, Maggie Jean, her last surviving child had passed away.

In my mind, they were a pair, a trio. Whenever I saw Maggie Jean, there was her mother, and her husband, Cal. When Maggie Jean and Cal decided to retire and leave Philly for small town life in Georgia, where Maggie Jean and Mag were born, Mag was right there with them. They left their children there and the grandchildren and embarked on a whole new life. I am so glad they had these past few years together without work demands getting in the way. They just led a leisurely life.

I will always remember Maggie Jean with a smile on her face, an open hearted giver, who loved the Lord and loved her family.

For the last two years, she battled cancer and on Wednesday God called her home and said, “Well done. Well done, my good and faithful one. Well done.”

My heart aches for her son and daughter who have lost their mother; her daughter’s children who are now adults themselves; her son’s kids who are toddlers and will never get to know their grandmother; her husband who has lost his partner of the last forty-some years; and her mother.

I pray that they will feel God’s presence in a mighty way as He carries them through this storm that they will remember that even during life’s worse moments God is God and He is so good, so faithful, and loving. That they will gain comfort in knowing that one day they will see their loved one again because at the same time they were hearing the news of Maggie Jean’s demise, another family heard the same news and they don’t know if their mom is in heaven or worse they know for sure she isn’t.

Maggie Jean, we love you, we’ll miss you, but we will see you again. I pray that on those streets of gold, you’ll meet TTT in person or should I say “person.”


If you want to know
where I'm going,
where I'm going soon.

If anybody asks you
where I'm going,
where I'm going soon.

I'm going up yonder.
I'm going up yonder.
I'm going up yonder to be with my Lord.

Oh, I'm going up yonder.
I'm going up yonder.
I'm going up yonder to be with my Lord.


I can take the pain,
the heartaches they bring,
the comforts in knowing
I'll soon be gone.

As God gives me grace,
I'll run this race,
until I see my Savior face to face.
I'm going up yonder (going up yonder).
I'm going up yonder (going up yonder).
I'm going up yonder to be with my Lord.

Oh, I'm going up yonder (going up yonder).
I'm going up yonder (going up yonder).
I'm going up yonder to be with my Lord.