Grandma Anna Suderman
Colossians 1:3-5
Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.
A letter to Grandma Anna Suderman,
Dear Grandma,
As I sit before my computer, I wonder what you would say to me. I remember you as a lady whose curly gray hair was not always gray. The crinkles of laughter that lined your face showed your faith and trust in God and filled me with joy. The sky-blue eyes twinkled always when I saw you. I did not see the suffering that came wave after wave during your life.
I didn’t observe your painful tears as you laid four children into the grave, Hilda-1, Daniel-6, Paul-2 and Gerhard-<1.>
I vividly remember rehearsing the song based on the 23rd Psalm I would sing the next day (March 12, 1950). Grandpa sat in a rocking chair nearby, and listened quietly. After I finished, I heard him say, “Beside the still waters, that is where I want to be….” Mother (Anna Daisy) wrote in her book, “The Lines are Fallen“:
On the 13th day of March, the day after the celebration of 50 years, Papa and Uncle Alfred took chairs back to the church, returned trays to the bakery and paid for all the cakes. Papa told Alfred, “Let’s go by the new house they’re building just eas of church on Grand Street. Mama is wants something smaller.”……As they walked to thecar, Papa said, “Wel….yes….when I am gone, you can see to it.” At the supper table, Mama saw him slumping to one side in the chair. He slid to the floor. Mama ran across the street for help. Dr. Jantzen came, “Severe stroke.”
Then before morning on Thursday, a scant 3 days after the celebration your dear Gerhard slipped away. That evening Anna Daisy came back to Hillsboro, “Please sleep with me upstairs,” you requested. Anna Daisy remembers there was no sleep – you prayed all night, giving God praise for his goodness for giving you fifty years with the man you adored.
A week after the celebration of marriage for 50 years, the life of Gerhard Suderman was celebrated, for he was home ‘beside the still waters’ with His Lord. Your life changed, Grandma. Uncle Alfred did make sure there was a move made to the smaller house that Gerhard chose for you.
Your thoughts were indeed built on Jesus for the lines of purpose in your life was tightly tied to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope. When I visited, I remembered hearing you pray at bedtime, your hearing aid removed. You lifted each of your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to the throne of God with the hope of a grand reunion in Heaven! Your hope in Jesus Christ never wavered. Your written words testify to that, for twenty-five years, your journal was a testimony for all of us who come after, of your faith and strength. Your love of words reveals the love that you carried with you as you lived each day, not only for family, husband, your children, but to all of us who come after you and those who you knew.
Anna Daisy writes: “Mama gave us life. She taught us never to lean on others when we could stand alone; borrowers owe interest when kindness is extended; and, flowers shared always bloom best. Mama taught us to walk through each storm with head held high.“
Dear Grandma, words cannot express, what your life meant to all of us. Though you were a tiny lady, you carried a giant-sized heart and compassion for others. Your wisdom and faith grew through every adversity that swept through your life.
Grandma, I love you,
Your granddaughter,
Emily Ann
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