Madeline Foster - 网上纪念网站
This memorial website was created to pay tribute to our dearest Mother and Grandmother who was born in West Virginia on September 23, 1925 and passed away from this earth on September 1, 2007. She will forever live in our memories and hearts.
How better to honor her life, then to tell you the story of it.
Mom was the last child born to Jessie and Alice Ramsey. Her family consisted of her parents and 9 children who all deceased Mom before her death. Her parents raised animals and grew vegetables to keep their family fed. Mom worked very hard on the family farm, she was up at dawn and worked until the sun set. She always said she got up “before the chickens”. Working the farm was a daily routine with the exception of Sunday; her family rested in observance of the Sabbath.
Mom grew up during the depression but she never went hungry or missed a meal. She spoke very highly of her parents. She held the utmost respect and love for them. When she told stories of her parents you could see the love she had for them in her eyes. The loss of her parents was a memory of extreme sorrow, she lost them both on the same day. She expressed how lonely she felt the day she lost her parents. It is only now that I truly understand this loss.
Mom met Dad when she was seventeen years of age. She said the minute she meet him, “he was the one”. Her parents did'nt approve of him because he dressed and looked like a heathen. You see, her family was very reglious and they wanted a christian man for their daughter. In time, Mom’s family grew to love Dad and treated him like a son.
Mom and Dad married October 12, 1942. They started a family right away and had a total of 9 children. We had a great childhood. We did not go without nor did we ever go hungry. We had clothes on our backs even if they were handed down from child to child. Mom taught us many things, respect each other, how to work hard, kindness, the caring of man-kind and most importantly how to live our life in faith, trusting in God to guide us.
Mom, Dad and some of my siblings have great memories growing up in West Virginia. Washing clothes in a number 2 wash tub, using an out house as a bathroom and growing up on a mountain where the air was so fresh and clean that we have never smelled air like that since.
Dad had been coal mining since he was a little boy. In 1963 he knew it was time to move where opportunity and a better life for his family could be found. He moved the family to Connecticut where the majority of us still reside today. Mom had a difficult time moving away from West Virginia, eventually she adjusted to her life in Connecticut and called it home. In 1981 Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer and passed away when he was fifty-eight years old on January 28, 1983.
Over the years Mom’s health continued to decline. Death knocked on her door several times. She was such a ighter and had such a strong will to live. You see, Mom loved her family and she didn’t want to leave us. Mom was one of the most religious/spiritual individuals I have ever met. Through all of her trials and tribulations, she never lost sight of her love for her God, Jesus Christ. She taught us to love God and to honor him. Some of us have not followed the path that Mom wanted us to in our faith, but I know before our life’s end, we will, for it is through her teachings of faith will guide us there.
Mom’s life may not be summarized as one of the best for she experienced great loss and a lot of alone time. The loss of her parents, siblings, husband, daughter and grandchildren were life-changing events. But, Mom had great love; throughout her life she knew her husband, children and grandchildren loved her. Her grandchildren near and far have fond memories of her. She was able to touch each of them in a special way. She made all of us feel special, for it is in this memory we all want to be remembered.
Mom’s homecoming was absolutely beautiful. The scriptures, the song and the belief that she was in a better place made her passsing easier to bare. Our life on earth will never be the same. A person like Mom is not someone who just touched our hearts, but she touched our souls. We all will think of our mother often and wish she was here with us to share in our lives.
The best way to describe Mom’s life is in her journey and the legacy she left behind. My writings above describe the journey but her eulogy describes her legacy. Her eulogy was written and read by her granddaughter Sherry Arehart Fields. In Sherry’s words you can feel the love she had for her Grandma and the love she knew her Grandma had for her and all of us. There is no writing that could better describe Mom’s legacy.
MY EULOGY FOR MY GRANDMA FOSTER
I believe that every person in their own unique way creates a legacy in their lifetime by which others can live long after that person has left us. For those of us who remain, Madeline Foster has truly created a legacy to uphold and fulfill in our daily lives. The element of Grandma’s life was love, faith, spirit, honesty and family.
Madeline Foster was a person of unconditional LOVE. Love was the major foundation by which she created her life. In loving Grandpa even when he would bring his fishing buddies home with him and then wake Grandma up and tell her to make them some breakfast and she did, even though she would have loved to take the frying pan to him, the raising of her own children, the teachings of her grandchildren and in how she welcomed in new family and friends.
Her unconditional strong love is what made our family what it is today and what will keep us together from this day forward. Grandma loved each and every one of us the same, even though there may be a few in here that thinks Grandma loved them more, like her honey bun Amanda or her name sake Madeline Jean,but Grandma had a way of making us all feel so special..like we were the most important thing on earth and that everything was going to be all right.
My Grandma’s FAITH and SPIRIT was unbelievable. She was a true woman of faith. She loved sitting and reading her bible, listening to her gospel tapes and CD’s and watching gospel on TV, for as far back as I can remember, my Grandma has been a conveyor of the word of God in developing her family and living her daily life. Never would she miss a Sunday to share the word of God. Her SPIRIT lives in each one of us.
Grandma had such a high level of importance to HONESTY that it made it impossible for any of us to act otherwise."Grandma knows" is an expression that I am sure that we can all relate to that kept us in check and it is true Grandma always did indeed know.
My Grandma defined the word FAMILY as I have come to learn and live it. Holidays and family gatherings were the celebrations they were because we were surrounded by Grandma’s love. So much of who I am, whom we all are is because of the role she played in our lives. We all owe most of who we are because of what she has taught us and has instilled in us. She was thankful for her family; all of us, and how much we all meant to her, and how happy she was that we could all enjoy our time together.
What I will miss the most about Grandma is the huge smile that lit up her face whenever she saw one of us grandchildren and later one of her great grandchildren entering the room. How she always would make sure we had enough to eat, we would always order a pizza the night we would come in on our visits and she would break out the broom if anyone thought they were going to try to pay for it. I know our trips were always annoying for Aunt Janie and Aunt Faye because Grandma had them running ragged making sure that we were going to be taken care of.
I said to Sissy that I wished I could have had the opportunity to say GOODBYE, but I realized that for Grandma knowing that I was happy on her last day on earth would have been the greatest gift I could have given her. I will miss listening to her and Aunt Janie bickering back and forth and Aunt Janie saying "Now Gertie", but even Aunt Janie is familiar with the expression "Grandma Knows". I will miss calling her up and talking with her and hearing her say "Well". I will miss seeing the joy on my mother’s face when she was going up to see Grandma, even if it was to hang wall-paper or clean her knick-knacks which was a day job in itself.
We were so lucky to have her in our lives as long as we did. She was a gift from God to our family but now she is a gift to God. It is going to be hard to imagine life without her,the most dependable, perfect person we have ever known, but it is our time to say GOODBYE for now and let us all remember the person she was and all those memories that she has given each one us and lets all continue to carry her legacy on that is what she would ask of us.
I LOVE YOU GRANDMA
In loving memory of Mom!
