I knew her as Masona, or as she liked to call herself to our kids, “Masoney.” 🙂 Mattie is Stuart’s grandma on his mom’s side. She’s an amazing Navajo lady, and I’m so happy that I knew her!! Masona passed away on Feb 17 early in the morning. She’s now skipping down the streets of heaven happy to be walking again and have sight!
Masona was blind for most of her life, but you’d never know that it bothered her a bit with her cheerful outlook and happy spirit. The only times I ever heard her even mention it was when she was holding one of our little ones. She’d say, “I wish I could see what you look like!” But not a bit of bitterness over it was ever there. One of the things that I loved about Masona was her sense of humor. She was always smiling and laughing. The loud noise that our rascals always bring along with them would just make her chuckle and laugh. She was always more than ready to hear all about the things that they had to tell her. Even if it was something as simple as, “Masona, I’m wearing a red shirt!” Ha!
The boys love to go visit Masona and are excited each Sunday when we’d get to go after church. Ella enjoys it to because she decides to explore the entire place, and I’ve had, on more than one occasion, to snatch her up from visiting someone else’s room.
Masona has had a difficult time this last year. It was hard to watch her health decline, and visits were more difficult as she had a harder time responding. One visit however, after she had been quiet for a few minutes, Stuart asked her if she was sleepy. She told him that she wasn’t sleeping she was listening to the kids noise. 🙂
We had one very sweet visit with her that will always stand out in my memory. It was right after Christmas, and we knew that some people from our church were going to go caroling at the home, so we asked Masona about it. She told us that some people had come to sing Christmas songs for them. Then we asked her what her favorite Christmas song was. She said she couldn’t remember the name, so Stuart suggested, “Silent Night?” She said, yeah, that was it, and then she started to softly sing verse after verse of Silent Night to us. It was such a precious moment. We gathered the kids up on her bed, and listened to her somewhat weak, but still sweet voice as she sang. Then we all chimed in and sang several more songs with her including the boys’ favorite, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas!”
That’s the way I want to remember our Masona. She’s singing now with a clear, strong voice, seeing the sights, that I can only imagine, with bright eyes, and rejoicing with our Savior! I wouldn’t wish her back from that, but we will miss her till we see her again one day!