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 "I hope I die in the winter time. I’d hate to leave my
garden and the flowers, but they are asleep then, too and I
wouldn't mind so much.” How wonderful God granted my
mother's wish and took her to her Eternal Home in December.
Grandpa and Grandma Getty had five girls. The second one was
my mother. Grandpa Nub always called her "Jake." She was his
“boy”, and he could not have picked a better one. Mom loved
the outdoors with all her heart. Her garden was planted in
the right sign of the zodiac and kept clean with a hoe and
her push one-wheel cultivator. The vegetables and flowers
grew and blossomed better, she thought, because she shared
them with friends, neighbors, and her church. I think the
liberal mulching she did with "barnyard fertilizer" also
helped a lot. She hated all weeds, but especially burdocks
and bull thistle.
She must have been very happy when they moved to Onondaga to
live with us in 1960. The pasture and lane were almost solid
burdock and bull thistles! Every afternoon, Mom could be
seen with her spade and one of the grandchildren, usually
Mary, fighting the enemy. Mom won, too, for until she had to
go to a nursing home, we had very few of the pesky things.
Her lovely voice singing the beloved old hymns -“Brighten
the Corner,’’ "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder," "Beulah
Land,’’ ‘‘In the Garden," "The Old Rugged Cross," ‘‘In the
Sweet By and By." "Blessed Assurance,” and so many others
could be heard above the whine of the mower as she circled
the lawn, while she gathered the nuts from the many hickory
trees in our yard, while she worked in her garden or hung up
her clothes, or whatever she was doing at the moment.
A short rest after the
noon
meal was spent reading her King James Version of a well used
Bible for she felt the words were more beautiful in it. Of
late years she decided to read the Living Bible because it
was easier but when Mom used a Bible passage in conversation
it was from the older Book.
Her favorite chapter contained the verses “In my
Fathers house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I
would have told you. Go prepare a place for you, and if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again and claim you
unto myself, that where I am, ye may be also.”
Peace and happiness in your mansion, Mom. Verily, I say unto
you. Thy ways were the ways of truth and love, and thou
didst earn thy reward.
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