Precious Hands

My hands are a mess.

Wait let me be more specific.  My nails are a mess.

I'm one of many women who have become accustomed to manicured nails  It's now been more than two months since I have seen Lisa, my nail tech.  The word I've heard is that she won't be back at work until the first of June.

Of course, that's not the end of the world.  Nothing has prevented me from using my hands to wash dishes, fix a meal, do the laundry, and most of all type.  I would really miss my fingers.

I've been thinking a lot about hands lately.

I wasn't there, but I have heard that on this day 49 years ago, my sister, Cindy, sat by my grandma Nesmith's bedside, held her hands and told her what a blessing she had been to so many for so long - caring for the sick, arranging flowers and making yeast rolls - all with her hands.

I was there when this photo was taken of my daughter Renee holding my mother's hands.  An interesting note is that Renee's hands are very much like her other grandmother's hands. However, Renee is like my mother in that she is very caring.


We have learned that when we have something we need to tell our mother, someone holds her hands.  We held her hands when we told her that her dear friend, Merle had passed and when our sweet aunt Gloria had gone to  Heaven.

No bad news in this photo, just love.

May 20, 1971, will be a day that always gives me pause.  And this year I've thought so much about my grandma Nesmith's hands.  Many lives were touched because of her hands.  And the number of lives has grown exponentially.

These are the hands that first knew the love and care of her touch.

They are the hands of my mother and her sisters.  I believe they are in order counterclockwise, beginning top right: Iva, Thelma, Carolyn, Ann, and Beth.  The photo was taken just a few days before Thelma passed away.  The caption says "Life is a balance between holding on and letting go".

I'm sure that as my mother and her sisters and their sweet daddy stood around grandma Nesmith's bed early on that May morning, they knew that it was time to let go.  And yet I have no doubt but they have all continued to appreciate her hands - and what they meant to so many!

And as far as the exponential thought.  If you multiply the hands of five sisters times their 18 children and keep multiplying - well I believe you'll get it.

This makes me just one of many who really appreciate the fact that these five sisters grew up to have the same sense of using their hands to help others.

They are, like their mother, a great example of Precious Hands.

                                                                                               May your life be filled with enough Sunshine 

to make you appreciate the Shadow