“Love you more” she said as I stood in the doorway. I looked back at her, my heart full from the hours spent in the company of a beautiful soul, whose failing body was now confined to a bed in a nursing home.
From the moment I entered the world, Carol was there. She waited at the hospital for hours late into the night for me to arrive. She was one of the first to hold me after I was born. She joked with me that she was a “McKenzie hog” and would scarcely let me out of her arms for anyone else to hold me. Fiercely loving and fiercely loyal. A protector and a confidant.
My mom and dad moved to Michigan when my dad took a position as pastor of Grace Missionary Baptist Church in Wyandotte. Carol was one of the people who stepped in and wrapped her loving arms around my parents as they started life in a new city. Carol got my mom a job at the place where she worked and they instantly bonded. Carol became her “Michigan mom”. By the time I was born, about 4 years after my parents arrived in Michigan, Carol was eager and excited to be promoted to surrogate grandma.
Even though my parents eventually returned to Ohio, Carol remained a part of my life. In recent days, I have returned to words she wrote to me in messages over the years, evidence of the unwavering source of strength and encouragement she was. I am full of gratitude for Carol’s life and that God chose her to be a part of mine. I will carry her with me always and hope to carry on her legacy of love.
It is fitting that Carol’s last words to me were “Love you more”; it was the anthem of her life. It’s the anthem of Jesus.
John 15:12-13 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”