Dovie Sue Williams Schoolfield

The family gathered Thursday and said "goodbye for now" to the woman who held the heart and soul of our family.

In with the sadness was the absolute gratefulness that we got to know her and have her in our family as long as we did, 88 years.

As my cousin Anna said, "she could make a bed in a minute flat and loved to dance to 40's music in the living room." As my brother said, "she made everyone feel like they were the most important person in the room." As my cousin Nate said, "she taught me everything I needed to know about God by how she lived her life."

After a simple service, Annalise sang Granny's favorite hymn, "In the Garden", giving it a bit of a country feel, then we all went back to my parent's house, which is on the same patch of land as the log cabin my Grandmother was born in, to have dinner and tell stories and be together. We also got to ride the very tired, very fat, very patient farm horse, Dakota, and many of us got stickers and burrs all over our clothes when we walked out in the pasture that evening to watch the stars come out.