Remembering Opal

My oldest friend, Opal who was 98 years old, left this world this week to go to be with Jesus. This morning was the funeral, it was a time of remembering, a few tears of sorrow because we will miss her here but also a lot of celebrating because we are confident that Opal has gone to be with the Lord. We are so blessed as Christians to be able to rest in this hope!

"And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord

from now on!" "Yes" says the Spirit, "That they may rest from their labors,

for their deeds follow with them." Revelation 14:13

Opal was a bright light for God at church and in our town. She was very cheerful and energetic almost to the end (After breaking her hip a couple of months ago her energy began to go). She was a great example of how you can serve the Lord even when you are old.

Here are some of the things we have enjoyed remembering about her:

• Her whistled special numbers at church. She loved music and loved to whistle, so often at our music nights she would whistle a song. A couple of her favorites were "His eye is on the sparrow" and "How great Thou art".
• Her walker which she named "Sputnik" and had a bicycle horn attached to it. She was quite willing to use too if she needed to make her was through a crowd of people. The little kids loved coming up and using it also.
• Her cheerful grin. She loved to smile and did very often.
• She loved to volunteer. Almost to the end she was volunteering at our local TV station and she also volunteered at other places.
• Her love of children and enjoyment of things they enjoy like children's choruses. Most times we would sing "Jesus loves me" at church she would point out that it wasn't just for kids, Jesus loves all us bigger people too.
• She loved to making rag rugs in a special way using an old toothbrush handle. She made many, many rugs and gave them away. When we got married we could count on a rug from Opal. At the funeral they had all of us raise our hands if we had one of Opal's rugs in our home. The amount of hands up was pretty impressive!
• Her life of thankfulness! Up until this past winter she had lived for 25 years in a Senior
  Apartment building. She was so thankful for that apartment and considered it to be rather like a palace because now she had indoor plumbing. Every so often she would mention how grateful she was for indoor plumbing.
• Her love of sweets. She very much enjoyed the doughnuts that came with Sunday morning fellowship time.

Opal was a very sweet addition to our lives and we will miss her but we are looking forward to seeing her again some day!