Sorry it’s been quiet here!  I promised fun content, and it’s been crickets.

With good reason, as my Ninny went to be with Jesus last week.  We got in late last night from Mississippi.  It’s hard, and I know it’ll always be at least a little hard knowing she’s not here.  I miss her so much already.  I have barely stopped crying.  I dread going by her place today to get to where I need to go.  I think I may need to find a new route.    I’ll miss being able to pop in there, willy nilly, and see her sweet self.  Who always brightened up, no matter how awful she was feeling, at the sight of my kids.

I was her namesake.  Sarah Gaila.  She was Gaila Maddox Hodo Williams.  Pronounced Gay-La.  A name I was not a fan of in youth and grew to love and be so proud of.  Even taking it over my maiden name as my middle once I married.  I hope I get to pass down the name Gaila one day.  She was my buddy growing up, and we always had a special bond.  We loved watching matlock together.  haha – which I’m sure sparked my lifelong love of crime shows.  We’d go get our hair done every friday when I was visiting.  Having your hair styled, by a mississippi woman in the nineties, when you are six is a special treat altogether.  I thought her garden was the most beautiful I’d ever seen.  Rolling by there on Monday, seeing the fountain now with no running water broke my heart a little.  I loved visiting her in her beautiful southern town.  Those memories are everything.

She had a lot of joy.  She was silly, fun, and loved God fiercely.  She made everyone laugh.

I’ll miss that laugh of hers, her sweet southern voice, how she’d call people “shug”, her beautiful handwriting, and her singing hymns to my babies.  She was faithful in prayer.  Every single day she prayed for me and my family.  Those prayers have and will continue to change and work in my life.  I am so grateful she was my Ninny.