This post is dedicated to my father-in-law, EJ Underwood, who has spent the last several years taking very loving care of Jenna Mae. In this picture he’s helping PJ. It’s a constant habit with this man.

My dad has always said that one of the great proofs to him of Christianity is the way believers in Christ die. As a family doctor for more than 50 years, he’s seen plenty of deaths. The ones who have been walking with Jesus, he says, look like they’re just taking the next step. There’s often a smile and a brightness of the face, like they caught a glimpse of Him with their heavenly eyes while they were still in their earthly bodies. Dave’s 98-year-old grandma, Jenna Mae, who went home on Tuesday, got just such a glimpse.

“Boys, I’m going home today.” That’s what she told the two pastors who visited her that afternoon. They’d come every day. She hadn’t said that before. “You are?” one of them said. She nodded and then asked if he could sing “In the Garden.” He started to, but couldn’t remember the words. “You sing it, Jenna.”

“And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own, and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.”

She didn’t get all the way through it. Tired, her memory slipping, she requested “Face to Face.”

“Face to face with Christ my Saviour, face to face—what will it be—when with rapture I behold Him, Jesus Christ who died for me?”

EJ was supported by our Nana (Peggy). Here she is–also with PJ!

A few minutes later Jenna Mae had her answer.

It was a good homegoing.