I put the picture of the Church on here because I know it will make her smile. She was devoutly religious but she was also private in her beliefs. She never tried to force them on anyone. "You need to read the word and make your own mind from it" she would tell me. She would tithe and I know the sacrifice she made by doing that but Church meant that much to her...I spent every waking minute at Grandma's house and ate every meal there. After Grandaddy died we would play checkers at night... but only after I had done my homework..or at least said I had done it. I always did some of it... so I wouldn't be lying when I asked her to play checkers and she asked "you finished your school work"...my reasoning being this ain't school work, it's homework so yes I did finish my school work. My homework I usually did on the bus ride in every morning anyway. The main reason being it usually kept me from being messed with. I got a few wise cracks at first, but they usually quit and moved on to someone else... and I had the best of both worlds. She was a master of checkers and I don't remember anyone ever beating her. You could talk about anything and everything while playing...it was fine with her.... because she only responded with "yep" or "naw" all the while jumping about a hundred and seven of your checkers at once it seemed. Heaven forbid once she got a King...she would jump so many backwards and forwards I couldn't keep track of em and would often ask her to replace the checkers and show me what she had done, which she could with ease....smiling broadly every time. I never knew....and never thought to ask why she was so relentless at checkers but she seemed to take a lot of pride in her prowess and to tell you the truth I got enjoyment from constantly being beaten like a drum...and whining about it. I think now looking back it was because of her smile...most every minute of every day was hard back breaking work for her and I liked making her smile. In fact making people smile is, and has always been my secret enjoyment in life. I spent most of my classroom time not listening to the lesson but trying to think of funny comments I could spin off of what the teacher had just said and make the class laugh. It was better at home though.....especially with her. Somehow her smile was so genuine, so sincere. I guess because the times were so tough, the days long and hard...maybe that was what made it special...but when she smiled it lit the room....and somehow it made my life all the better.