Green Blue

I never knew you as a child
Romping, screaming, running wild

I never knew the youthful maid
Blooming, hopeful, soft and staid

I only knew you as you are
A memory of my mind
Wrinkles creased by smiling eyes
Eyes that must have shined

I never saw their sparkling hue
In the glory of long ago

I never really heard your wisdom
I never stopped to listen

I never, never knew
What I never stopped to know


My great-grandmother has passed away and it's been more emotional than I'd expected. I guess that old saying is true- you never know what you got 'til it's gone. It's funny because I thought I knew Grandma Green. I'd listened as she told me stories of how she was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. I laughed in my head as she recited old poems that she still remembered from grade school. She was a woman who always had a full dinner table and a full candy jar for the kids. She was outspoken, sometimes brash.

But did I really know Carrie Mae Hebel Balts Green. Did I really glean anything from the lessons God had taught her during her life? The folly of invincible youth. Your life is yours. Why let old stories intrude on your special relationship with your iPod? Why ask your great-grandma questions when you could be content to listen to the TV your 90-year-old grandma can't possiblyhear anymore. How lonely a world for me. How lonely a world for her.

I helped write her funeral program. She received a teaching certificate from Eau Claire State Teacher's College and was one of only two people from the graduating class of 24 to be assigned to a schoolhouse. My great-grandpa Bob and she were long-time neighbors. She never really liked him because his family were all poor farmers, even poorer than her own family. But when Bob Balts started showing his attentions to another teacher, Carrie knew that she had stronger feelings for him than she'd admitted to herself.
She loved to laugh. And she was strict. She loved to cook. And now she's gone and there's no more questions to ask.

She loved her Savior and He is with her now. She touched my life.