 A friend of mine shared this with me and I want to share it with all of you.

This poem is something Mom would have said if she had been able to.

   A limb has fallen from the family tree.
I keep hearing a voice that says, "Grieve not for me.
Remember the best times, the laughter, the song.
The good life I lived while I was strong.
Continue my heritage, I'm counting on you.
Keep smiling and surely the sun will shine through.
My mind is at ease, my soul is at rest.
Remembering all, how I truly was blessed.
Continue traditions, no matter how small.
Go on with your life, don't worry about falls.
I miss you all dearly, so keep up your  chin.
Until the day comes we're together again."

I've been trying to narrow down my memories of my grandma to share since she passed. To narrow it down to just one is probably the hardest task to complete. Most of them are famous enough that everyone already knows them which makes it even harder. 

What isn't hard is to recollect is the lessons that I've learned from her. From counting back change to my directions, whether I knew it or not it was her not so subtle way to prepare me for adulthood. I didn't always appreciate her lessons at the time but as I've gotten older I fully understand her reasoning behind them. 

One of the biggest lessons she taught me was when to eat crow. When I was all of 7 or 8 years old we were at the Lyndon house for one of our weekend visits. I remember asking Grandma what we were having for dinner. That night I was lucky enough not to get her usual answer of horse poop sandwiches. Instead she told me chicken and noodles. My immediate reaction was to turn my nose up. In my young eyes chicken and noodles meant Campbell's chicken and noodle soup which I was not (and am still not) a fan. I TOLD Grandma that I was not going to eat it and she couldn't make me. Her response was immediate, You're going to try and you're going to like it. I of course pouted all day long. As I watched her prep her noodles and debone the chicken I was completely and totally disgusted. Not only at the fact that I had to eat this stuff but that she was going to make me eat it. No matter how many times I told her that I didn't like it and no matter how many times I was told it was not what I thought it was, I WAS NOT GOING TO EAT IT!! I would have rather eaten the locust shells on the back porch than to touch the stuff.  Finally the time had come, the time that I had been dreading the whole day, supper (not dinner) time. 

We sat at the table and my plate was served. With my nose up in the air the whole table was waiting on me. I shoveled the spoon in my mouth as fast as I could while holding my breath just praying that the taste wouldn't hit my taste buds. My tricks didn't work. The taste hit my tongue and I was in love. As much as I hated to admit it, I liked it. Not only did I eat my plate that was fixed but I had two more helpings. 
I know I wasn't always the greatest grand-daughter. I know that I did some things that hurt her. I know that I could have done way more and put forth much more effort into our relationship. And I'm not afraid to admit that, because of her. 

I love my grandma. I always have and I always will. When she passed I know she knew that and felt the same way and that's what helps me heal.

Love, Denesha

What can I say about my mother...she was one of a kind.  She suffered through the depression, World WarII, The Korean War,The Cold War, The war on Polio, a horrible flu epidemic,a long battle with TB, which tore her from her family for 13 months.  She also raised five children. In the 1960's she feared that my father would not be able to work again after his lung collapsed 3 times in one winter.  She went back to work to help support her family.  Mom and Dad worked together to provide for their children.  Mom was always my back up person my go to person for advise.  She always gave us honest and sometimes hard advice to follow but she did it with love.  After all she had to survive it was obvious that she was a fighter.  If anyone mistreated her children, she was a force to be recogned with and she made sure the injustice was corrected.  Mom also encouraged all of her children to seek their futures with honesty and integrity, to work hard trusting in God to get us through the tough times.  

Mom was happy to be a wife and mother but she was also a provider with a sense of humor.  She related to me that one time she had an employee evaluation.  The manager told her that he had not seen much improvement in her preformance over the past year.  She said, "That's okay, I haven't seen much improvement in you either!" That was Mom.  She did not want to advance into management outside of the home.  She was happy to do her job to the best of her ability without a lot of as she would say hubbub.  

Mom we all loved you with our whole heart and you will be greatly missed.  We will see you again someday and in the mean time we will survive on great memories..I love you and hope to live the rest of my life in a way that will make you and Dad proud of me.

By the grace of God we will be together again in heaven.

Your #2 daughter Sheral Clever

I have deep appreciation of Carol & Don for all they did for the boys and me when Joe was in the hospital and later we spent Christmas with all of you.  It really meant a lot to us.  Don drove from KC to Evabelle's to pick us up & then took us back after Christmas.  I had never driven in a lot of traffic.

Aunt Carol and Uncle Don continuously made me feel like I was a member of their immediate family.  They would visit my own family when we lived in Bethany, Missouri, and when Dad died, they graciously took us in to share their Christmas knowing how difficult the holiday would be for us. They opened their home to me once again when I was stationed at the Air Force Base in KC. Living with them during that time was such a blessing to me. They were the first relatives that I introduced my fiancé to. We visited them often laughing at Aunt Carol's wonderful dry humor. Charlotte came to love them as much as I did.  I always felt loved and welcomed by Aunt Carol. Charlotte and I will miss her very much.

My first memories of my Aunt Carol and Uncle Don Weaverling are at the farm which we always referred to as Aunt Frank's place.  It was really the farm where Grandpa Clyde and Grandma Vera lived near Gilman City.  This was the gathering place for all the aunts, uncles and cousins when we would meet and share a day of fun as well a great meal.

I really enjoyed a recent visit with Aunt Carol after her 90th birthday when she shared some wonderful stories about my Dad and his siblings while they were growing up together on the farm. She recounted how hard they all worked on the farm with the boys working endless hours while injured but never used that as an excuse to get out of chores. She remembered helping Grandma Vera in the kitchen making bread from scratch and baking food for the family. It was a tough life but they were a very close knit family and many of the stories were about how poor they were and how hard they had to work to survive.  They were too poor to afford some of the necessities such as shoes.  One story she shared was about watching her oldest brother, my Dad, continue walking barefooted each day behind the team of horses plowing and cultivating the field even though he was having great foot pain.  Richard had something in his foot and the infection kept getting worse.  Each night my Grandpa Clyde brought a bucket of fresh cow manure up to the house and Richard would soak his foot in the bucket until the warm manure worked as a poultice that finally drew out the foreign object in his foot.  They eventually determined that it was a piece of cornstalk that was causing all the infection and foot pain.  This was a story I had never heard of before and how poor people used to heal themselves without the help of modern medicine. 

Later in life, I was driving my Dad, Aunt Carol and Aunt Evabelle to Uncle Sam's funeral in Texas.  The three siblings were shocked that a Texas country restaurant had no idea what a basted egg was and the three siblings were more than happy to share how to make basted eggs with the "restaurant chef!" It was one of those times that I could sit back and watch the three of them educate those southern folks in the fine art of cooking.  

I truly treasure that morning visit with Aunt Carol and the special memories we shared of a life well lived.   You will be missed!

~Your Nephew, C.R. Wooderson

I will miss the days that you woke me up saying, get up get out and get on it. The times you slap boxed me and the overall joy you brought into my like. I love you grandma, you will be missed.

We all loved Aunt Carol, fun to be around, witty, and loving. She would always talk warmly with me individually every time I saw her. I have many memories of family gatherings on (what I called) the farm on the edge of Bethany overlooking the baseball field (too young to remember the real farm). Aunt Carol and Uncle Don were there almost every time we went down. What a great family to be a part of, and Aunt Carol is a big part of my pleasant memories! She went out of her way to tell me how much I looked like my dad, and made me feel loved. Praying for the whole family during this difficult time. Love you all.

The last time I saw grandma, she leaned over and whispered to me.  She asked me if I felt like I was part of the family yet. I responded, I know I love you like Im one.  I will hold that memory in my heart forever. As the matriarch of her family, she didn't have to embrace me the way that she did.. and so I feel honored to have had the opportunity to know and love her. I am only one of many, that will miss this beautiful woman.

OBITUARY

Mrs. Carol Elaine Weaverling

17 February, 1925 – 9 August, 2015

Newcomer’s Floral Hills Funeral Home & Floral Hills Cemetery

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