Mom's mom, Granny, was my second mom. I made my second mama a promise on her deathbed that has rung in my head ever since:
"Granny, I'm going to be like you. I'm going to go to South America and do missions or teach like you for a semester or a year. Then, I'm going to be like you and teach, but instead of teaching first grade like you I'm going to teach Spanish. I can only hope I can be as great as Mrs. Lucas was."
Her tired face that breathed death shined a glimpse of life and joy once more. "Do it," she said quietly. "You'll love it," she added in a slightly stronger voice.
I wanted to do those things..but more. When cancer took the life of that powerful woman of God almost three years ago, I decided to be just like Jessie Lucas, my granny, in every way I can.
You see, Granny spent a year teaching abroad in South America. It was the most memorable year of her life.
I wanted to be just like Jessie. After her death, I found myself signing up for two summers in Latin America-one summer in the rural Andes of Peru sharing the Gospel through teaching English at the village school and helping shepherds with their flocks and the next summer working at a malnutrition center through Florida Baptist Children's Homes in indigenous Guatemala.
I did that to make my Savior proud, but I knew Granny was proud, too-I was just like Jessie.
After she traveled, she taught at a prestigious school for the children of Clemson University's professors. It was odd for the daughter of poor cotton sharecroppers to do that, but God gave her an opportunity bigger than what she was capable of doing alone.
This next part is a God thing, because I don't think it's common for good schools to list their job openings on Craigslist. But when I saw a private school in Tallahassee looking to hire a Spanish teacher, I figured it wouldn't hurt to send in my resume and teaching philosophy. Next thing I know I'm in love with this "private school with a public mission" and I'm signing a contract with them instead of with two other public schools that I always thought I would have chosen.
It looks like I made the right choice, because it turns out this fall I will be teaching the children of some of my old professors at FSU. In fact, most students here have FSU faculty as Mom and Dad. And I (through God giving me opportunities bigger than what I am capable of) am here.
Just like Jessie.
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But Jessie wasn't Jessie without Clyde, or at least his memory by her side. Granny's other half died the day after my sister was born. But Granny spoke about Papa with such a fondness that I felt like I knew him.
Granny and Papa met in their early 20's at church, and I met Andy when we were in our early 20's, too. But we weren't at church-we both got drug along by some mutual friends in our campus ministry to play a Frisbee game out on Landis Green.
And if I remember right, Granny and Papa talked even more one night after a hymn sing. Well, Andy and I don't do hymn sings, but we did like to throw people in Westcot Fountain on their birthdays. That night when we first noticed each other nearly two years ago, we were doing just that to our friend Ryan. And everyone around me that night seemed to fade away except for Andy.
"When you meet the one the Lord wants you to marry, you spend time around others and you think 'I don't need them in the way that I need Clyde.' But more than that, the Lord will tell you. He'll tell you if you should marry him and He'll bring other people in your life who think the same,"' Granny told me five years ago when we were talking about a guy I wanted to date.
When I think and pray about Andy, I feel just like Jessie described.
"You never know God's plans, not even for tomorrow," Granny warned me once. So I say this with the limited prediction that I can, though that shouldn't limit what I feel when I say this.
When I went to Guatemala, I gave to these girls in their lives. I planted seeds through my love, discipline and service. Towards the end of the summer, God watered these seeds..and I saw fruit- a change-come in their lives as a result. But I want to check and see how God is watering those seeds in their lives. Plus, the girls I served in Guatemala begged me the day I left that I would come back to visit them, and when I did come back, I'd come back with Andy.
Andy and I have prayed about it, and returning to Guatemala during Christmas is something we want to do. But as graduate students on limited salaries as a teacher and research assistant, traveling would mean cutting back somewhere in our budgets. Yet we know that such things are worth any sacrifices we have to make to love God and love the people that He has made accordingly.
And then I see that to make this trip happen, I could not just be like Jessie, but look like her, too. At least, my left ring finger could. If God continues to lead Andy and I towards marriage, a ring would be a huge expense. If I wore Granny's ring instead, we could afford to visit those kids in Guatemala.
Andy pointed out that there are other ways we could cut back financially. But using the ring that Clyde gave to Jessie so many years ago would not only bear more fruit of a gift of love that was once given, but it would remind me to be just like Jessie.
Granny would never would have wanted to be remembered for just being a traveler, great teacher, or Clyde's better half. Her legacy is none other than how sacrifice rooted in love bears fruit.
And by wearing her ring to go to Guatemala again, I'll be just like Jessie.
