Monday night my great aunt, Anna Mae, passed away. Anna Mae was 96 years old! She lived an incredible life serving the LORD through prayer and just spending time with Him. That's all she needed and He is the only person she really had in her life.

Anna Mae was raised during the Depression and she always told me stories about what it was like growing up during that time. She inspired me in so many ways. She was never married, yet her focus always was on one thing: the LORD JESUS CHRIST and serving Him. She was a school teacher and always showed me the importance of reading. She was the first woman in my life that I met who really set an example of someone who was devoted to loving others and providing for them. She always thought about herself last. She was the first woman I ever knew in my life who was passionate about studying and reading the Bible. I mean, this woman was amazing.

The only family members Anna Mae had living were my dad, and my two uncles and her great nieces and nephews. So her whole entire family lived in TN while she remained in West Virgina for the rest of her life. We would go visit the farm in her hometown where our land was and all our family history, the land that she took so much pride in. She cared soo much for her home. The land our family owns is where our ancestor, Benjamin LeMasters (a messanger for George Washington), built the farmhouse on. This is the same farmhouse she grew up in. There is so much history she preserved so that we would know about our lineage and take pride in it. She would go hiking with us through the trails and down the creeks when she was 93 years old!!! She was a strong woman. Once she cut her leg from a thorn in the woods and my dad asked her if she wanted to go back, but she insisted she was fine, and she kept going! She wanted to continue the hike! It was incredible.

Even when she was in her 90's she would insist on making us homemade food whenever we would come and visit. She was an amazing cook. Her homemade meals were soooo good. I admire her because she was alone for so long, but not once did she complain.

She experienced a very painful and long, drawn out, horrible death, but not once did she complain. She knew that her treasure remained in heaven. It's just amazing me how she kept an eternal perspective her whole life. My dad, my two uncles, and my brother, Andy were the only family members who could attend the funeral. This is what my dad said: "There were tons of people at the funeral home because she had taught the whole town. All her former students were there. One lady she taught was 80 years old! She left a legacy."

My uncle Danny was with her when she died and he said right before she passed away she wanted to know about all her great nieces and nephews and what they were doing in their lives. She cared soo much about us even though we were so far away and she rarely saw us.

When I think of the times that I went to W. Virgina as a child I remember one memory so vividly....every time we would pull out of her driveway and drive away I would get so sad and emotional from the time I was a little girl until my junior year in high school. It was soo sad for me because we would slowly pull our big blue Chrysler van out of the driveway and go down the road literally 5mph as we waved goodbye to her. She would walk out from her porch to the edge of the sidewalk and wave goodbye with tears in her eyes. My dad would drive as slowly as possible as we all waved out the window. We hated to leave her because she was soo alone in that house. But now I'm so happy because those tears are gone. They have been wiped away by Jesus Christ and she is in heaven rejoicing with Him :)

From thinking back on her life and my memories with her, I realize that I need to have a much more eternal perspective every single day because this is not my home and the things in my life are only tempory, my joy is found in Christ alone and serving Him.