My mother-in-law, Dora Minnie Watson Shoemake Pugh, passed to her new life earlier this week. The family wanted to write something more than the standard preceded and survived jargon, so my niece took on the task. I tried to help her come up with a few words to define Dora’s legacy, but too much and not enough came to mind. As usual, it finally came to me last night in the time between awake and sleep, too late to contribute to the eulogy that was prepared to be delivered today. So here’s my version.
Dora’s legacy in a single word is Delight.
I’ve never known anyone else like her who could find Delight in the mundane. She would never let me pick up after my children’s playtime at her house because she said she enjoyed picking up the toys later and remembering the moments the children played with them. She was at every grandchild’s special event, encouraging and congratulating them on their performance but truly enjoying every moment.
She taught me to find Delight in birds. She loved them, especially indigo buntings. They were ours. I could give her a chair and a bag of stale bread to feed the chickens and she would delicately sprinkle the crumbs to call them to her, crooning to them like they were children.
“Yes, yes,” she would say with fervor to anything that was good or beautiful. I often wondered where she went in her mind during those Delightful times because it must have been the most magical place. Yes, yes! It was Delight.
As far as mothers-in-law go, I hit the jackpot. No treasure on earth compares in value to her acceptance of me. She welcomed me to her family from the very beginning. She knew me before I knew her, after all. She uplifted and blessed our marriage in all ways, never intruding. Many times, when she was at my house she would slowly look around and take in everything and then tell me what a wonderful home we had and how comfortable she was there. I think my house could be a tent in a parking lot and she would have felt the same way. She found Delight where she wanted to find it. She sought it out.
Dora was the epitome of Psalms 37:4, “Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Her physical body will be placed in its final place of rest today, but her spirit soared even before she took her last breath. She’s finally free to find true Delight in heaven.
If her life has impressed anything upon me, it is to seek out Delight in my own. I cannot let that gift go unopened. To do so would be such a disservice to her legacy.
Dora, if you are reading this over my shoulder, and I hope you are, pray for me and your family that we can seek Delight in our own lives. It must be such a magical place because you are there.
