TJ Knits

This is me with my Grandmother, Holly Tisdale Hopkins. I have talked about her several times on my blog. Here she is giving me my first Bible, a Cambridge leather King James. She asked me what color I wanted and gave me a choice, but I told her that all Bibles were supposed to be black and say "Holy Bible" in gold! Where I got that, I have no idea! (My current Bible is burgandy leather and NIV) Grandma was foundational in my coming to faith and I praise God for the example she gave me. We had difficulties at times in our relationship, but never anything to keep us apart. As an adult I was able to realize that she and I were so alike that when she saw her own idiosyncrasies in me, it bothered her greatly. She was born a teacher and remained one her entire life. Sometimes that is a blessing and sometimes that is a "curse". I am "speaking the truth in love." This is the reality. But there are not enough words to express how much I learned from her or how she was a constant in my life which was in constant change throughout my childhood. Not only did she teach me about faith, but also creativity, natural beauty, cooking, gardening, reading, knitting and the list goes on. She loved my scrapbooking and lived to see my page about her influence on my life published in Memory Makers quilt pages book and to see my son born. He was her first great grandchild. 16 days after she met him, she died. I don't know what Heaven will be like and whether or not we will be having conversations with our friends and family about our earthly lives or if that will just be too trivial to think about, but when I see her I can't wait to tell her about all the other things I learned to do or learned about that I was not able to share with her. This June she would have been 100 years old and 9 days later I turn 40. We spent many birthdays together. Sometimes I didn't appreciate that as a kid...you selfishly want your own day and I had to share mine with her BD and Father's Day. But now I would love to spend a birthday with Grandma! (And Father's Day with my Daddy for that matter!) Still, my heart is at peace knowing that her Faith in Christ produced works of righteousness, bearing fruit and eternal life!