Rehoboth Road by Anita Ballard-Jones

Author:Anita Ballard-Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58571-507-7
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2011-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Fall, October 17, 1963, MaDear slipped away to be with her Lord. Elizabeth missed her in the kitchen fussing and fixing breakfast. She missed the aroma of coffee seeping into her room, the smell of bacon and ham, the clanking of pots and pans. She missed the love of MaDear.

Elizabeth walked from her room into the kitchen; next she walked across the sitting area to MaDear’s room. She called her name, tapped on her door before opening it. She noticed MaDear was still asleep, but a different kind of sleep. She looked so peaceful, a smile gracing her face. A smile that said, “So long, see you later, I’m going home now.” Elizabeth knew her time had come. She walked back into the kitchen and called her mother. Just then, Johnny staggered into the kitchen.

The Almighty was ready for MaDear. She went home in the still of the early morning. Johnny remembered MaDear preparing him, telling him, warning him that her time was near. She was his MaDear. The warmest person he knew. He thought his heart was breaking. His crying continued for hours, and seemed to paralyze him with a stiffness that frightened his mother. Elizabeth called the doctor, and he was given a sedative that allowed sleep to shroud his sorrow. As the days passed, sleep made MaDear’s passing bearable.

The only Negro funeral parlor was near Macon. It was hard for most of MaDear’s friends to travel that far. The funeral was three days after her passing, and the wake that night. Loretha had explained to the funeral director the detail of MaDear’s final wishes. She wanted her funeral in the old way. Loretha instructed him not to erase her “going home smile.” MaDear’s body would lay in her bronze casket in her living room. Elizabeth agreed, wanting to be near MaDear as long as she could before her remains went into the cold, damp earth. It would be placed against the back wall between Elizabeth and Johnny’s bedroom.

The living room furniture was moved to the shed, and some of the smaller pieces were placed in the sitting room to make room for the wake and to receive MaDear’s friends after the funeral. Forty wooden chairs were set up in four rows, with an aisle down the middle, and an additional ten chairs were set up in the kitchen and in the sitting room.

It was difficult for Johnny to see MaDear lying still in the casket. But if she had to leave him, it was okay for her body to spend its last days above the earth, in her home, near him. He was quiet during the wake. People couldn’t help noticing how difficult MaDear’s death was on him. Loretha sat in the front row of the first aisle and held him tightly with her arm around him most of the time. His eyes were swollen, his heart hurt, and his chest was heavy.

Mr. Baker sat directly behind Johnny in the second row with other church members and friends from work.

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