Saying goodbye to a loved one is never easy. More important than their death is the mark they left on your life.

I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 2 Timothy1:5

Perhaps there is no sadder time than when a person we've loved departs before we had a chance to say goodbye. Some good friends of ours are lamenting the loss of their mom and grandmother. As I hear bits and pieces of who this woman was they loved so much and the kind of person she was, I began reflecting on my own grandmother.

Come, let me tell you the story of Celeste Moe. I want to tell you her story because she left a profound mark on me to the kind of person I became.

Celeste was born in 1894 and she died in the year 1963 and she was buried at the Riverside Lutheran Cemetery in the town of Ronneby, Minnesota. More important than the death date is the kind of person she was in the lives of her children, grandchildren and her husband, Russell. Celeste believed in education which brought her to the St.Cloud Normal college where she studied to become a school teacher. After graduation, she took a job in a one-room school in Ronneby, Minnesota just down the block from their home.

Celeste was a woman of conviction who believed in the evils of alcohol because of how it destroyed families and caused collateral emotional and physical damage to those around the one who drinks. Her conviction in this regard lead her to join the woman's Christian Temperance Union which was founded in 1874 in Cleveland, Ohio, She believed that by abolishing alcohol we would have stronger families. It was her conviction that encouraged me to live an alcohol-free life.

She was a woman of conviction who out of her love for teaching children made decisions that would benefit them.

Celeste or Mamo, the name her grandchildren would refer to her by was known to utter encouraging words for each of her grandchildren. To my own mother who was lamenting over how her hearing-impaired son would survive in a hearing world, she told mom that 'you do not have to worry about him because he is going to do mighty things in this world'. This was the kind of woman she was because she was a church-going woman who mentored children through the Sunday school classes she taught who chose to do the right thing.

When I think about her death, I think about my dad and mom getting us bundled up and taking us to the Milaca hospital where unknown to us at the time, we said our final good-byes to her as she laid in her hospital bed. I was told later that her heart was failing. It wasn't long before we got home when mom received the word that Mamo had died. While I do not dwell on her death, I do dwell on the profound words she used to edify others and the kind of people who were impacted by those words.

As I read the words from 2 Timothy 1:5, I was reminded of Paul's reference to the sincere faith of Timothy's mother and his grandmother Eunice and now resides in Timothy as a reminder of the profound impact that our mothers and grandmothers can have in our lives.


We are better people because of their unconditional love for us.