Honoring Mrs. Smith: A Life of Love, Legacy, and Divine Grace

Creativity. A poet. Writer. Mediator. Reader. Impact. Inspired others to change. Generous. Giving. Love unending. Free spirited. A traveler. Curious. A learner. Remembers. A legacy that endures. A lover. Jamaica personified. Favored. Goes with God. Blessed. A forever teacher. Adventurous. Fun. Disciplined. A creator. Funny. A dancer. A mover. A shaker. A gentle disruptor. A quiet storm. 

👆🏾 The above are the notes I took during Mrs. Smith’s funeral service.

Mrs. Smith is my mother’s second mother. Or perhaps, even more accurately, my mother’s mother.

Mrs. Smith, as I’m sure you can tell from the notes I took at her funeral, was a dynamo!

She was dynamic and creative and funny and free. She was helpful and prayerful and spiritual and certain. She was generous and loving and kind. And did I mention funny? Can I keep it a buck?! There’s really and truly no one funnier than a Jamaican. Quippy, witty, gentle and funny.

My mom met Mrs. Smith when she was in college. Mrs. Smith and her daughter, my mom’s friend, Auntie Winsome (because we’re Black so my mama’s friend is obviously my auntie, a duh!!!), attended college together. Yep, you got that right! Mrs. Smith graduated in her 50s from college at the same time as her daughter! Does it get more badassery than that?! Perhaps not!

She was a gem. She is a gem.

Where my mother was, you could oftentimes find Mrs. Smith. She attended my graduations. My birthdays. My celebrations. Though she lived in Boston, she even came to visit me after I moved into my very first big girl apartment. Mrs. Smith’s son joked that she was my mother’s American Express card– “can’t leave home without it!”

As a housewarming gift, she gifted me oven mitts (which I needed!) and a platter, too. Fitting that I got to take them all for a test run since I hosted dinner in her and my mother’s honor on this very visit, below.

And in true Mrs. Smith fashion, she also gifted me a book of poetry which I’ll need to read in her honor sometime here soon.

Mrs. Smith saw me grow… And then shrink! She saw me learn and grow and cultivated my growth, too. She poured into me and never made me outpour.

I’m grateful to have known and be known by Mrs. Smith. To have known her and be loved by her.

I’m grateful for her life. Her inspiration. Her legacy. I am grateful for who she was, and who I am because she was, too.

Find your own Mrs. Smith if you don’t have one. Let them love you and pour into you and build you up. Let them love you with the divine love they hold sacred and near and dear. Let them show up for you when you least expect it. Let their divine love cover you and protect you and be kind to you. Let them be who they are so you can be even more of yourself, too. Let love rule, and let their love flow over and into and around and surround you.

Mrs. Smith was a wonderful writer—a poet—so I know she’d appreciate my writing, and this piece, too. Her family read some of her original work at her funeral, and my mother read a poem that Mrs. Smith made her promise to read many, many moons ago. I always say we were created by The Creator to create, and Mrs. Smith surely believed and lived that, too.

Her love of words, choosing each as carefully as I do, always seemed to land just right. Maybe that’s in part why I write—to continue to carry her legacy, to keep her torch burning bright, to give voice to the love and wisdom she so freely poured into me and all who knew her.

A Prayer of Gratitude: Honoring a Life of Love and Legacy

God, I thank You for Mrs. Smith. For the nearly 100 years she had on this beautiful earth, and for the heaven she lived on this earth, too! 100 years is not enough when we live right and well, and I’m grateful that she lived her life well and fully. That she lived her life on her life’s terms and no one else’s. Thank you that she taught me how to be a woman of grace and gratitude and gentleness and lovingkindness.

Thank You that her funeral was a beautiful celebration of her life! Thank You for the reminders from her family and friends that she was cherished and loved. For bringing to the surface things that settled. Thank You that her life is a testament and a testimony of Your love, kindness, grace and mercy. Thank You for her spirit of generosity and care. Thank You that I knew her and was known by her.

And I thank You for all her love and her legacy that she leaves behind in her loved ones. Comfort and keep us. Mold us and hold us. Amen.