Threads

Written by Deborah Boutwell, for Grannie’s funeral, 3/29/2011 – Mildred Waldean McPeak Carathers

I remember Grannie telling me that she learned to sew using small pieces of thread that she was given
by her mother and aunts….their left over pieces from their work. Those small threads wove their way
into a young girl’s heart and started a passion that lasted for close to 90 decades. There was one thing
you can be sure of…..if you visited Grannie at her house….you were going to get threads on you. Her
passion spilled out and touched all that knew and loved her.

Even the tiniest of thread is actually several twisted threads and I’m reminded of Ecclesiastes 4:12….A
cord of three strands is not easily broken. Grannie loved to have all her family around her. However,
her favorite times were when she was one on one with us, when she had our undivided attention…we
could focus on her and she could focus on us. She was twisting some threads at those times.

Grannie will be remembered by many because of her talents. But most of us will remember her because
of who she was…a mother, a grandmother, and an aunt. She had a big heart and she loved with all of it.

But she also loved God. I can’t say that Grannie was a “church-goer”. I honestly can’t remember her
reading from her Bible when I was around. But we had talks about God. They were friends, as she said.
She knew Him and He knew her. Oh, in the past few years she sometimes thought that He had
forgotten about her, but I kept reminding her that even though she didn’t feel that she was of any use to
Him, God had a purpose for her all the way up to her dying day. She touched many lives with her
sweetness and her smiles. She was quiet about her faith, but don’t doubt that it wasn’t there.

It wasn’t her goodness or her sweetness that makes me know for a fact that she is in Heaven today….it
was because she told me that long ago she accepted Jesus as her Savior and He saved her. One of those
strands in that cord for her was Jesus….He made her life thread strong.

She has connected us with that thread, woven in and out of each of our lives. We are connected
because of her and the thread is not weakened because she is physically away from us. The thread
holds strong.

Grannie was an amazing woman. She lived through nearly a century. She saw things that we only study
about or watch on the history channel. She saw the world change before her eyes, many different
times. I asked her once which time period she would want to live over again and what would she
change. She smiled and said without a second thought….”I would do it all over again, just exactly the
same, I wouldn’t change a thing…..We had a lot of fun!”

Some years ago Mother received a Christmas card and it touched her heart. She had copied it down in
one of her quilt books. She asked to make sure that we read it today. It’s on the back of your program.

“Often our own lives are like carefully crafted quilts. God, of course, is the master designer. He lovingly
pieces together the scraps of our heartache and bright colors of our joy, all against a background of His
peace. Sometimes, after life’s hardest blows, we do not recognize the beauty of the pattern for many
years. But the beauty is still the thread that holds the whole master piece together, and even in life’s
most sorrowful moments, He carries us in His arms and teaches us from His infinite wisdom.

As we celebrate {this wonderful woman’s life}, allow His love to wrap around you like a comforting quilt
and warm your spirit to new dimensions. Sit at His feet. Look on His face and invite Him to {saturate}
every stitch of your soul.”