For Linda Fawn
It’s been one week since Linda Fawn left this earth and entered into life eternal. She is survived by three beloved children, Haley, Cole and Caleb, three beautiful grandchildren, Jordan, Lilah and Madelyn, a son in law, Jordan, and soon to be daughter in law, Mary-Keeley, and a sister, Laney, her confidant and friend. She joins her dear father and mother, Dixie and Martha, and her big brother, Larry. While we grieve her loss and miss her deeply, we can take solace in the blessed assurance that Linda is in Paradise experiencing ultimate joy and peace forevermore with many of her loved ones, including her Lord and Savior. Linda Fawn is finally home.
In the painful process of mourning her loss, thoughts of Linda have been filling my mind. She was my aunt, my mother’s treasured sister, and my cousins’ wonderful mother. When I picture Linda, I see her beautiful long dark hair, bangs too, her pleasant smile sweetly tinted red, and kind brown eyes that smiled too. She was good-natured and good-hearted. In a world that’s increasingly bad, Linda was truly good.
And good-humored, too. Observant, like her father, she could look around and joke about something comical going on, like a criminal on the show Cops or an eccentric Walmart shopper. She made me laugh out loud on more occasions than one. I bet you can say the same with a specific memory or two.
Perhaps Linda’s best qualities, the essence of what made her good, came from her mother. Like her mother, Linda was loving. Not a selfish love, shallowly felt and quick to expect something in return. The love in Linda was deep and giving, serving and sacrificing for those in its wake as endless and as wide as the sea. The love in Linda put others first. It gave three grateful children, and three grandchildren, lives enriched by the sweetness of a mother’s love. Greater than the gifts Linda gave without fail on birthdays and Christmases year after year, are the gifts of precious memories soaked in the only kind of love that makes a difference in this world. Love that gives gives life. And love is what Linda did best.
Linda took pleasure in simple things. Reading and writing. Music, too. Spending time with her kids and grandkids. Talking on the phone and visiting with her sister. Watching her favorite tv shows, and Alabama football. She was not well-traveled, but she loved a good beach trip. Some of her fondest times were spent with her family at the Gulf.
What has struck me about the kind of person Linda was is how starkly it contrasts most people today. Our world says, “Make yourself happy, gain more, travel more, love and serve yourself above anyone and anything”. Self-absorption abounds, proven by the “selfies” filling up our phones and internet. Yet our beautiful Linda would hardly even allow a photo to be taken of her. Thankfully she allowed some, and photos of Linda have been accumulated for us to enjoy at her funeral service as we remember her, reminding us all just how brightly a humble, selfless person shines.
Linda was no stranger to hardships. Sickness and stress were ailments she battled daily in recent years. All those who love her are heartbroken by the reality of her untimely death.
My hope and prayer for every pain felt in this room is for Linda’s new reality to prevail in our hearts and minds. Heaven is a very real place, with a very real and loving God who made a way for us all to be there together one day by the sacrifice of His only Son, Jesus Christ. Linda may not have spent every Sunday in a church pew, but she knew and believed these truths. She loved like Jesus loved. And when she met Him one week ago face to face, you can bet He welcomed her into Paradise well-pleased with open arms.
As we hurt and miss her daily, may we look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and thank Him for blessing our lives with Linda Fawn. May we look to Him for comfort and peace, and even joy as we imagine sweet Linda perfect and complete in His presence evermore. May we put our hope in Him, and love as He loved us, knowing that because of that very love, we will see Linda again.
