Well,

It’s Fall and that means some things.
First of all, it’s one of my favourite seasons. I just wish it didn’t mean Winter is coming real fast.
Next, it’s my first born son’s favourite season. We used to live in the country and most days that he came home from school or work he would walk up the steps and take a deep breath and say “just smell that, mom. I love that smell.”

Fall smells different. It smells orange and red and yellow.
The third thing that Fall means is, I get to remember in a special way, the end of Nano’s life here.

Two years ago yesterday my mama went to Jesus.  Two years ago today was Thanksgiving Monday and it was a beauty over in Calgary.  That’s where we all were, Nano and her three little ones, when Jesus called her name for the last and first time.
Last Here
First There, where He is.
She and Papa have been together again for two years after 27 years apart and I don’t know what they’re doing but it’s good.
I want to talk loudly at you people.
Really, do you want to see Nano someday? More importantly, do you want to see Jesus some day? Turn your whole life over to Him. All of it. If you don’t want to, well you don’t know what you’re going to miss. I yelled that at a friend of mine when I was 12. She knelt down right there in the playground and said she wanted to be with Jesus some day. Not That day of course. But a different day. Her name was Heather and I have no idea where she is now but boy oh boy, when she stands before the throne she cant say it’s all news to her that Jesus is the only way to the Father. I preached it loud back then, when I was wee, as only a 10, 11, 12, 13, year old Can preach it.
Kids used to laugh at me because Papa was the preacher and they promised to beat me up after school, often and I walked a different route, often,
thats for sure. I don’t think Nano and Papa ever called the school to complain or report. Parents didn’t do it back then.
What they did was
be kind. Papa never passed up an opportunity to tell about Jesus.
There was a hockey arena in the next town over. Every once in a while I got to go to a game and there was no heat or insulation and we were under cover but it felt like we were sitting right outside in -30. I loved going because I got to have a hamburger and run around with the other kids.
It could be a bit of a rough crowd, as papa would say, at those games and the language would
“make your hair curl”. (It didn’t take much back then because most people didn’t swear like they do now)
and when the words were swirling around and he just couldn’t
say Nothing
he would turn around and say,
“That is Holy God you are speaking of and He does not want you using His name like you are.”
I’ll tell you that gave them a shock. Usually they grinned and I’m sure they went home later to tell their who’s who, about the crazy guy at the game.  Weird looks and tough glares didn’t bother Papa.  His mission in life was to tell about Jesus and how much He loves everybody He ever made.  Not a single one is without someone to love them.
God does, always and forever and the best and most.

Papa had a bit of a strange name. It was Chesley. Chesley Douglas. Chesley Douglas House.
C.D. for short. His signature was C.D. House. Sometimes people called him Chester. He didn’t care for that and didn’t hesitate to correct the mistake.
I had a teacher in grade ten who called me Pamelia. Believe me when I tell you I never, ever, let that one go.
My name is Pamela and back when I was knee high, nobody knew Pam was an option, so Pamela it was.
Nano’s name was Lena. Lena Isabel Pritchard. I  loved Nano’s name. So pretty and dignified (although back in the day, dignified was not part of my vocabulary)

I’ve told you before that I didn’t even know my parents had names until I had lived four or five years. I thought they both had the same name and that name was
Honey. ♥

Names are a big deal and people work so hard to come up with Juuuuuust the right name for their little ones. I have been known to mutter about names and wonder aloud, “what in the World is wrong with Kathy or suzy or Billy or Johnny”?  I’m not old but some of the new names are, well, in a word, hard.
Anyway,
Names are given by people and of course they are important.
God has quite a few names too.
Abba
Alpha and Omega
El Elyon
El Roi
El Shaddai
Look them up. There are more!  He is an awesome God!
https://bible.org/seriespage/8-names-god

Some days I miss Nano alot,
like when I finished the first knitting project for my new, well almost new, he’ll be new in March, Grandson and I wanted to send her a picture and she would have said
“Oh that’s adorable. Good for you dear”. That’s what she called me,
Dear.
Or like when I was making pastry on the weekend and I totally forgot how to do one of the steps. Up to two years ago I would have gotten on the phone and asked her to remind me and she loved it when I asked.
As the day approached, the anniversary I mean, I wondered if I would sit and cry and feel like an orphan.
I didn’t.
I remembered the family time we had together before she left and I honestly remember it fondly. That month between September 14th and October 11th 2015 was a time I look back on
joyfully.  My brother, my sister, myself and different combinations of family on different days and at various times, together.
It was hard and it was awfully, terribly
good.
In a few months I’m going to have a new name. It won’t replace the name my parents gave me but it will be the name our new little one will call me.
Stay tuned.

Now though, the names I think about when I get up in the morning and when I’m about to sleep,
are the names that define who I am in God’s eyes.
Beloved
daughter
friend
saved
saint
child of God
precious
redeemed (you can look that one up in the dictionary)
called

and I need to get my vegetables on for dinner so I’ll stop there.

♥