Aunt Sister

My daddy's last living immediate relative, Juanita Head Merritt, known and loved by all of us cousins in the family as "Aunt Sister", born March 31st, 1921, is not long for this world. She told me not to be sad, that she has accepted it and has lived a long and full life. She has courage.  She was comforting me, instead of the other way around, when she told me the doctors could do no more for her, that her heart is worn out and her time is short. She has trouble breathing, as her heart does not get enough oxygen, and sometimes the spells of not being able to breath are quite scary. At those times, she must take an anxiety pill and a nitroglycerin pill and go to bed to rest. Her loving grandson, Bill, is taking care of her, along with hospice and assorted helpers. She just about raised him, so he is paying his debt to her. He will get a star in Heaven for his kindness and caring. Hospice has been coming about a month now, so it will not be long.  She is the last of  Daddy's immediate family, the last of the older Heads, that I have known and loved all my life, the Old Guard. She will soon be with the beloveds already gone but not forgotten. She will be reunited with Uncle Thomas, her husband of many, many years, gone a few years now, and with her oldest son, Tommy Merritt, my first cousin and a rodeo cowboy who died at the age of 54 in 1997.  I ask that the Lord bless and keep Aunt Sister, and make His face to shine upon her, and lift up His countenance upon her and grant her Peace.