Linda Lee 4/2/25
My husband”s mom died before I ever knew him. I cannot wait to meet her in heaven and tell her thank you for raising a son who became my life partner. In 1984, Jim gained a step-mother when he married his dad to Linda on July 4th, 1984! That is when I gained more “in-law” siblings and a mother-in-law. Modern families are very complex. Perhaps other families were too back in the day, but it feels like the families of today were not the simple families I “knew” growing up.
Linda and her grown sons and their families immediately became our family. Pop and Linda suddenly had 7 kids and we got together for both ordinary and big events, raised our children as cousins, celebrated holidays, played together, and weathered our fair share of hardships and trials. Linda became my kids’ grandma and she loved them as though they were hers biologically even after Lionel had passed away and she had remarried. Today my mother in law left earth for the joy of heaven. I am sure that Jim and Pop were there to welcome her home.
Probably because she was not Jim’s mother and because everyone was already grown, Linda and I were more friends that the typical in-law relationship. She never offered me advice or felt the need to defer to me; maybe she did with Tammie but my Jim was not a son she had raised. Don’t get me wrong, Linda was a strongly opinionated woman and she was not shy about sharing her views, but I never felt disrespect when we shared differing viewpoints and I always felt seen and cared for. Linda shared her home, her faith, her heart and many cups of tea. She is instrumental in Pop coming to faith in Jesus in his later years.
More than forty years after we became family, many things have changed. We both buried the people that made us family in the first place, as well as many other family members. Over the years, times and relationships have been strained, bridges burned and feelings have been hurt in our extended family. Linda remarried, the grands all grew up and family gatherings have become faded memories, for better or worse. Yet, I still value the relationship of my mother in law and thank God for the life she shared with me.
One more person I love made it safely home and I long for the long hello of heaven.