Thursday, August 16, 2012
I want to share with you about Betty and the woman she was. This is the way I am going to remember her:
Betty was the daughter of Raymond and Mabel Rice. She grew up in Newbern, TN where she picked cotton by hand on her parents' farm. She was the beloved wife of Charles Arendall, whom she loved with all of heart and cherished always. She was the mother of Tim, her "#1 Son", and Tyree, whom she called "Ty-Two". She was the grandmother of Gena Brianne, whom she called "Angel", Nathan Charles, whom she lovingly called "Precious", and Trevor John, whom she named "Little One".
Betty and Charles established their motion picture business, Arendall Enterprises, in 1970. She worked hard and in doing so taught her children and grandchildren a strong work ethic. While many of you knew her as Betty, those closest to her knew her as Meemie. This was a name given to her by her granddaughter, Gena, and Meemie liked it much better than Betty. Throughout her life, Meemie she loved to fish and ride motorcycles with her beloved Charles. And when I say "ride", I really mean "drive". She was one of the first women to drive her very own motorcycle instead of just riding on the back of Charles' motorcycle. Meemie loved to eat ice cream, and would often have it for dinner, eating right out of a 1-gallon tub while lying in bed and watching TV. Meemie also loved to eat candy, especially chocolate. One of her favorites is good old fashioned Hershey chocolate bars. She drank Coke from a can, and left the tab down so she could put her straw through it and keep it still. She drank so much Coke that I have no doubt that sales have dropped significantly since she passed. In fact, I am a little worried about David's retirement account with Coke.
Though she complained about all of the upkeep at the Big T, she loved to host visitors and hold her annual July 4th parties. Meemie put out American flags around the entire property for July 4th, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day. She wanted to honor the Veterans in her life, her husband Charles, a Korean War Air Force Veteran, and her son Tyree, an Army Veteran. Many of Tyree's childhood friends, like Scott, loved to come to the Big T to camp, ride 4-wheelers, and eating all of Meemie's delicious home-cooked food. All of my guys (Tyree, Nathan, and Trevor) also loved to come to the Big T to ride 4-wheelers, shoot, and eat all of that country cooking. Meemie loved to tend to her hummingbirds at the Big T, and filled 15 to 20 hummingbird feeders everyday from April through October each year. She and Charles had the largest family of Hummingbirds in Tennessee and even had a story run in the Commercial Appeal entitled "Hummingbird Haven".
As many of you know, Meemie suffered from dementia which often times robbed her of memories and even recognizing the faces of her family. We would look through her photo albums with her to remind her of the time she shared with her loved ones. We would play Blue Danube tune in the Hummel music box given to her by Charles. For those not familiar with the disease, dementia tends to worsen in the evening; a phenomenon called "Sundowners". In evening Meemie often asked, "Where do I live, when will I leave to go home, and where will I sleep tonight?" It was very difficult for both her and for us. Now that she has passed on, we know that she will never wonder where she is supposed to be because Jesus tells us in His words to His disciples in John 4:1-4, "Do not let you hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."
Despite haven't forgotten many things, she never once forgot God. During her most intense suffering she asked for God to take her home, knowing that God had prepared a place for her heaven. During the last hours of her life, she looked up toward heaven. She looked uncomfortable to us, so we tried several time to reposition her. Each time she laid her head back so she could look upward again. Her eyes inexplicably changed color from their deep brown to a pale blue, like those of a new born baby. We believe this was because she was seeing God.
During the last weeks, Meemie maintained her sense of humor. One Friday evening I said to her that tomorrow is Saturday so we don't have to work but could instead spend the day together. I said "woo hoo!" to which she responded softly, "woo hoo". Another time that Tyree raised the head of bed a little too much, she yelled out "Son, you are breaking my neck!"
Many people have commented to us about how difficult it must have been to care for Meemie in our home during the last few weeks her of life. The truth is that this time was very precious to all of us. It was during this time we spent our evenings sharing cherished memories, laughing until we cried, and saying to one another how much we loved and cared for each other. Meemie would listen intently to every detail Trevor shared about his new Lego Star Wars toy, or to every move Nathan shared about that day's Dodge Ball Game. We feel so blessed to have had that time with Meemie and we will truly miss her, but not for long as this is not what she would have wanted. She would have wanted us to miss her, but let her go.
