January 6th…”WHAT IS YOUR MOTHER’S FULL NAME?”
POEM – “HER BRIGHT SHINING” by N. Elliott Noorlun
Her name was Clarice, From the Latin and Greek,
Declaring her ‘shining’ , If it’s kindness you seek.
Arlone was her middle name, Meaning ‘favored by God’,
As she lived for His Glory, While upon this sod.
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The year 1937 brought this hand-tinted photograph of our mother to life as she graduated High School in her very tiny village of Scarville, Iowa. I muse upon the gentility of our blessed matriarch as she, like any young woman, aspired as to what her future would hold now that her alma mater faded behind her. I’m sure that thoughts of her future must have occupied her heart as she strolled, diploma in hand, back to her parent’s car for the short ride home to the family farm where she was born in 1919. In Mother’s case, I have always had the perception that the name bestowed upon her to go through life with was very well chosen, for Mom was always “shining” in our lives.
Growing up within the loving shadow of her precious mother, Amanda, our mother, Clarice, gleaned all the virtues of what it meant to be a godly woman and wife.
Like a human jewel, she “shined” in love given, sacrifice offered for her family, loyalty to our father and, above all, loyalty to her Lord Jesus whom she served until He called her Home to Heaven’s Shores on June 23rd, 2017 at the tender age of 98 years and 3 months. Mange Tusen Takk, Mom, for “sparkling and shining” in the life of this Norwegian Farmer’s Son. Note: Mange Tusen Takk, in Norwegian means…….Many Thousand Thanks. 😉
Norwegian Farmer's Son 