Bamie.

"Some glad morning, when this life is over, I'll fly away; To a home on God's celestial shore, I'll fly away..."

This morning, my Bamie (my grandmom) passed away peacefully in her sleep after a short, two week battle with cancer. It was sudden and random and truly unbelievable, but it happened. I knew her passing away was eventually to come, I just didn't realize it would be so soon or that it would actually hit me like it has. Yes, it is incredibly hard to deal with losing a loved one. You think about all of the times spent together, all of the times you wish you had been there, all the things you wish you would have said, and how hard it will be to finally move on without her there. But through all of this a part of me is just relieved.

She's not in pain anymore. She's completely free. I've never really looked at this sort of situation in such a joyful way before until going through all of this. Two weeks ago, right after I had found out about Bamie, I was at Raleigh Worship and we sang the song above, I'll Fly Away. Everyone sang it with such joy! It just reminded me that death isn't something we should be sad about, or be scared of. Death is exciting. We will FINALLY be with our great, always loving God. And yes, it's still hard to cope with losing someone close to you, so I won't even try and deny that this whole thing isn't tough, but it's still so refreshing to know that she is now happy and free from all of this earthly pain. She's up there in heaven watching down on me right now, just kicking it with God! And no matter what I may have said or didn't say, or how many times I may have made the flight out to where she was, she knows just how amazing I think she is, and how much I love her. I know that I will see her again soon and that leaves me with such peace.

So, Rest in Peace my Bamie....I can't wait to see you again :)