Dedicated to Mae Nelle Malone Patton

This page is dedicated to Mae Nelle Malone Patton ("Mama"), Kay's mother, and Tammy's step-grandmother ("Ma Mae"), who died on March 8, 1998 after a brief illness. Mama and my other relatives readily accepted Tammy into our family from the beginning. Mama also liked our "Plant 'N Prayers"©. She had a hard time controlling her forgetful and unpredictable daughter with so many different ideas, but she loved me anyway. This was one idea she approved of from the beginning. On Thanksgiving Day I decided to give her the Thanksgiving Turkey cookie jar that Tammy made into a centerpiece with prayers for a grandmother. She enjoyed telling people about our "Plant 'N Prayers"© project and would tell them about the turkey cookie jar. One afternoon she was keeping one of my brothers' children, and they wanted her to read the little pieces of paper on the cookie jar. So there she sat reading scripture prayers to them such as: "We pray that Your peace that passes all understanding shall keep our grandmother's heart and mind through Christ Jesus." Based on Philippines 4:7 KJV. They wanted her to keep reading them!

Little did we know that by mid-January that Mama would be in the hospital only to come home one week between hospital stays before her death. As I sat with her I had all my books to read and my prayer journal. I was often using the "Plant 'N Prayers"© scriptures as guides to pray for people I had sent them to. I was praying the prayers for Mama that had been on the turkey cookie jar. Until the last two weeks, we didn't know how bad Mama's condition was. She had always been healthy and we expected her to get well and come home. Yet the Lord allowed her to go to her heavenly home. During her illness it was amazing to me how little anxiety she displayed. I thought she would want to make sure we understood things we would need to do to take care of our disabled father after she was gone. Yet she expressed no worry - just acceptance and peace. She was ready for the Lord to come and get her if her liver was not going to get well. I mentioned this peace to several people. This was not natural for her who, by nature, was a worrier. It was a couple months after her death that I realized that the Lord had provided that peace. Many friends and family members had prayed for her, and I had specifically prayed that she have peace beyond all understanding. I must have had very little faith, since I didn't recognize that it must have been the Lord answering our prayers until after the fact.

It is not up to us to set our life's time frame. Much of Mama's death we don't understand. But as the song says, "We will understand it better, by and by." God is in control. He knows all things and has plans for us. They may not be what we anticipate, but he knows what is best. Mama worked hard during her life for her family. She is now resting with the Lord, and it is our work that is not finished here on this earth. May we bring glory to Him while here on earth, and we will praise him forever in heaven for He is the one worthy of all the praise and glory. "Thou art Worthy!"