One Year, Your Reflection: Our Heritage

Marianna Grayston Monsey

Ayear has passed and the memory of Marianna Grayston Monsey lingers within our hearts. Forever shepherding our daily walk, her unspoken lessons of what it means to be a woman of nobility rests upon our heritage and dwells within our steps. Her life is the example each of us are left with, a goal and desire to be more like the woman who taught selflessness and devotion as a wife, a mom, a daughter, a grandma and a friend. Courage and strength, characteristics Marianna embraced without complaint, were the foundation of survival we, The Grayston women, could only pray to achieve. Trials, loss, separation and solitude inhabited her daily routine as silence and submission were the commands that brought her inner joy. As children and grandchildren we often wondered why or how she could persevere with such eloquence and grace; the blindness of her breakdown was a mystery without solution until God's promise was knocking upon her life. Eminent truths were unveiled during the last months, weeks, days and to the last moment of goodbye. Her childlike demeanor and free-spirited journey humbled the hearts of Grayston women; through confession and realization a mother and a daughter broke the silence. Granddaughters witnessed the phenomenon; a life's journey by choice and not by lack of understanding or worldly acceptance but rather the faith and hope of our Father's will and promise. Marianna chose to share in the sufferings of Christ so that God's glory could be revealed in a manner we would never let go of.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1COR 13:4-7

Although Marianna had the right to anger easily, to envy other women and seek acceptance among worldly guidelines, she chose forgiveness. Marianna kept no record of wrongs and was patient each time the sin broke her heart or shattered her dreams. Her intelligence was a gift many would boast upon yet she reflected no delight in such pride. The kindness went against the grain of rudeness earned; she chose to rejoice and remain in hope, faith and trust of God's protection. Marianna Grayston Monsey persevered through a life many women today would deem as a lacking self worth and merely a weak woman trapped in a life of dictation. That is simply not the case. The choices made exemplify a portrait of a Proverbs 31 woman; a wife of noble character. Her self- worth was found by knowing the acceptance she had in our God; her reflection and not the perception of others. Although she had many dreams hindered by circumstances there were a few in which came true. She cherished the gifts of angels, fantasized of flying her free spirit and giggled at the orneriness of clandestine flights. We, the Grayston women, kneeled in prayer for a bittersweet request. The battle of cancer was over and bonds of unconditional love were mended and her heart, mind, body and soul could take no more suffering. She sacrificed all entitlements with honor, grace and mercy. Her dream of having wings was granted October 8, 2009.

Andrea L. Storms

10/8/2010