My sister, Mimi, died Thursday, March 30, 2017, from an incurable lung disease. Last fall she told us she was dying, and I enjoyed phoning, emailing, and facebooking with her right up into March.
Mimi makes a point of enjoying each day. She reminds me of our mother. Back when the phrase “Have a nice day!” was coming in, Mom upgraded it to “Make a nice day!” Mom’s upgrade expresses Mimi’s view of life pretty well, too.
Mimi is too outgoing to rest peacefully — even on the streets of gold. This I know from how she enjoyed her neighbors on her street of blacktop.
“We have a loving bunch on our street!”
Click a picture to start the slide show of Mimi’s neighbors.
Mimi loved her neighbor children
“These three kids came every morning one summer. They were to make their bed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, and be at my door by 10 o’clock. They did a great job. Learned to be punctual. We did world geography on a big map, using stories from the morning news. They are good kids. I think we made some good memories. I loved every day of it!”
With Death looking in the windows during all our emailing and phoning, life after Death seemed a good topic. So a couple of times she told me her Purgatory story. It shows the direct, simple talk she learned during decades of mothering and teaching the little ones she loves.
Arriving home one evening I thought of Mimi telling a neighbor child about her husband, Spurgeon.
“Spurgeon’s in Heaven now.”
The child corrected her.
“You mean he’s in Purgatory, Mimi.”
As I was fitting my key into the lock I recalled Mimi’s reply:
“Oh, Honey! Baptists don’t go to Purgatory. Jesus let’s us straight in.”
