Grandma Johnson passed away this morning at 6:27 according to my mother. I was on my knees praying for her at just about that very moment as I had rolled out of bed onto my knees to pray and start the day. I am both glad and sad. I finally cried...both tears of sadness and gratitude. What was it like for Grandma to suddenly separate her spirit from her body and see her children gathered around her? Was Grandpa right there in the same room waiting for her to open her spiritual eyes? One of these days we'll know when we experience it for ourselves. Today she is in paradise.
Both Emily and my mom spoke of these comforting words that they found in one of the Hospice pamphlets:
"I am standing upon the sea shore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says; “There, she is gone! ” “Gone where? ” Gone from my sight. That is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at that moment when someone at my side says, “There, she is gone! ” There are other eyes watching her and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes! ”
And that is dying." - Anonymous
Obituary:
Eva Haymore Johnson passed away peacefully on Monday, January 25, 2010 at the age of 91. She was born on December 29, 1918 in Mesa, Arizona and was the eleventh of fifteen children born to Arthur Samuel and Abby Jane Scott Haymore. She spent her early years in Mesa and later moved with her family to Prescott where she attended high school and met L. Douglas Johnson. They were married in the Mesa Arizona Temple on May 30, 1938 and they enjoyed 63 years of marriage before Doug passed away October 2, 2001. She is survived by their six children Lurline Shumway (James, dec.), Melvyn Johnson (Sharon), Loni Gardner (Marvin), Melody Crandall (Rick), Marilyn Ziegler (Terry), and Robert Johnson (Susan). She was a wonderful grandmother to 37 grandchildren, 109 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great grandchild. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she served in many church callings including: Scout Leader, Relief Society President, Sunday School Instructor, and many years as a Temple Worker in the Mesa Arizona Temple. She served two missions with her husband, one to the Sydney Australia Mission, opening New Guinea to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and one to the New Zealand and Sydney Australia Temples. Funeral Services will be held at 10:00 AM on Saturday, January 30, 2010 at the Gateway Ward Building located at 2222 N. 40th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85008, with visitation one hour prior to service. Internment at noon in the Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery located at 719 N. 27th Avenue in Phoenix. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the LDS Church Humanitarian or Missionary Funds. Arrangements by Greenwood Memory Lawn Mortuary.
Published in The Arizona Republic from January 27 to January 29, 2010
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