Susan, and family,
So sorry to hear about your mom.  She was such a warm, wonderful person, so full of life and happy all the time.  She always treated me as if I were family. What a true blessing we all shared, she will be missed!! May God comfort and carry you through this difficult time.

She always called herself my second mother. She was my best friend's mom. My mom loved her. She was eccentric but I loved her so much.

Grandmama - one of the strongest women in my life! You've been a rock through all the years, no matter the distance. You have taught me so much. I'll keep you in my heart forever. I love you!

In considering the loss of a loved one I feel sure many would feel that more could be said than words they have ever read.
With the recent loss of my mother Kathleen L. Lincoln I would say this is true for me. I have been blessed to be a member of a large family from all sides throughout my life. Their are blessings of both expected and unexpected that this offers. Family gatherings, whether physically attended of only in spirit are of the happy kind and then their are the profoundly sad ones with any loss.
As a young boy standing in the company of elder family members as we all remembered and honored the loss of a loved one perhaps the one I relied on the most for understanding through such sad times was my own mother. In remembering her strength as she said a final goodbye to her own mother I feel now as if I am not nearly so strong. What comes to my mind that is helping is in remembering her many pursuits of the things in life she enjoyed. Some of these would surely be her passion for gardening and an effort that had many levels. Flowers were of course a special part of this as they also were for her mother and my grandmother. Her love of nature as many know extended beyond caring for flowers and as life permitted she worked with various animals over the years and created for herself a kind of country farm home life. While she permitted myself and as I recall my brother Kraig and sister Susan to look and listen involving these activities she kept most or all of the responsibilities unto herself. She allowed us to develope our own interest if any. We were free to learn and free as well to pursue our own. I was interested in both the use of a fairly good microscope and a telescope during my 16th year and these hobbies as well as being in the high school band kept me occupied but I still watched my mother pursue her passions at the same time. There was for example a time that we came across baby Owls whose mother seemed to have abandoned them. We took them into our home for perhaps 2 months. A very unique experience. She cared for them as if the world depended on it. Mother had another passion in life. That of learning and as a means to it reading. We often made use of our closest library. In my earliest memories of going with her I had a question. Mother I had to ask, with so many books what should I choose. She simple said check out any of them. Oh me and so every library visit became an adventure. As years passed and as her interest grew in farm animals there was also camping out and encountering the hazards of nature. One such encounter was her coming across a snake. She didn't back away but didn't know what kind it was either .She ended the snake to prevent it from possibly biting us. That one encounter put her on a new line of learning and as time passed she acquired many snake books and made sure we all learned about them. Their were other hazards of course in pursuing a deep woods lifestyle and unusual new areas of interest such a metal detecting. Activities such as this leads one to many a tale of the old west and history in general. Underlying our continuing education as we lived it was a mother who herself always wanted to embrace life more fully and to share as openly and non dictative as possible. I will always remember her then as the best teacher I ever had.
As so many know mothers love of life certainly extended to her family and if possible beyond. She herself grew up with one sister and had 4 older brothers. Her own mother was partly crippled in her younger years due to a car accident and to my recollection all continuously offered any help they could to their mother to make every day of her life a good day. I too wished for this for grandma and I am not alone as one of so many of the grandchildren. My mother Kathleen loved family. God must have seen this and ensured that because he also does allowed her to have 3 of her own and then grandchildren and live more than enough years more to see and get to know her great grandchildren. She know only to thank God by moving herself close in to his word. She read his word and she shared his word. Her last husband in this life, Bill Lincoln also shared this deep desire for them both to have God at the center of everyday of their lives.
This is all that reassures me that my mother is indeed better off in a much more wonderful place that she ever knew here. God did as he has said created this Earth and all in it and all else. But he told us clearly our time here is not forever.
We see that, he said that and so I know that while she would have taken every extra year he might have allowed her she also lovingly accepted his wish that she now be closer to him than we that remain.
Her also permitted her one final thing more. She was able even through her last months of life to very diligently guide most aspects of her departure. She choose months in advance her final dress. She freely choose to leave some details to us and in the control of my sister. She was able to have her final partner in this life, her husband near her throughout each and every hospital stay. All three of her children were able to spend significant time with her before she left us and grandchildren and great grandchildren as well. Beyond this my sister managed to have videoconferencing made possible so that other remote loved one could visit with her even as her final days approached. Most miraculous to me are two things. By being with her from early December 2015 until March 14th of 2016 I saw first hand her continuing ability to stay clear minded and effective even while in the hospital. Even as it seemed that failure was all that was ahead. She was I believe still with us all in her heart and mind to within her very last day. I do not know by what means God may decide the number of our days and I'm not so sure he handles us quite this way and that is one thing. But to be in control and to be able to feel you still are who you have known yourself to be until you final day would surely be God honoring your love of life in return for your love of him and his love of it.
I do not know with the same clarity I have of this life what God offers beyond but I know my mother Kathleen was to her own degree looking forward to finding out.
She said to my sister and in the presence of her husband once she knew their did not appear to be further hope that God has got it.
She left all who knew her, loved her and will deeply miss her to be closer to the only creator the entirety of reality has ever known.
This says to me bow and says a thank to God for what he shared with you and do not be so sorrowful as God has long since said for I appoint until man a time to die and you numbers as a 120 days. Maby if us do not make that. But God has also said of his people, those who looked to him for their highest reassurance of self and purpose of living, these he will as he chooses will call to himself even as he steadfastly called Jesus and our saviour back to him and glorified him beyond any possibility while here on Earth.
Years ago as I considered life, it's many pleasures, it's many possibilities and it's failures and asked myself what is it's purpose I would end with believing that it's truest purpose was a thing known only completely by God. But no I would say, surely we are not participants in the dream of one yet denied the satisfaction of seeing our part in it. God said I walk closer to those who walk closer to me.
If we wanted to ask a question of someone surely we would seek them out and ask. God offers us then the means to better understand his desire for us and all he has created and removes from us. We must remember to seek him and ask. My mother I believe did this but she knew if this as she knew so many years ago as we visited the library that while she pointed the way it was a search that each one of us must undertake individually. Perhaps the greatest lesson I ever learned from her.
May God Bless your every moment mother and my hope is Jesus Christ has already found you and now walks with you God willing. If not then I am sure you are at rest as God would have it.
May God the Father grant us all his grace and everlasting life and the desire to have it.
Amen

My beloved sister, Kathleen.  I thank the Lord for allowing me to have you as my sister- and dear friend.  I have been inspired by all the challenges you faced- and conquered. I have been inspired by your child-like faith in our Lord. I have been inspired by the zest- the joy- you showed in living.  I am a better person for having had you in my life. You will forever be remembered and treasured in our hearts.  I have God's promise I will be seeing you again. love- that lasts forever, Betty

OBITUARY

Kathleen Louise Lincoln

19 December, 1935 – 22 April, 2016

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