My Tribute To Fifi

If someone asked me what person in my life I remember first outside of my parents and sisters, and other extended family members, I would say that it was Fifi - Phyllis Pederson. If we had been Catholics, the Pederson's would have been our god-parents. I spoke to FiFi recently, after I got a letter from her with a few rememberances of my mother. Fifi was undergoing chemo at the time my mom died, and was unable to participate in her memorial activities. So I called her on skype from work that night, and we had a long talk and a bit of a cry. It was wonderful to catch up with her.

Like I said before, some of my earliest memories include Fifi and her family. It was Fifi with whom I stayed when my parents flew to Phoenix for the funeral of my great-grandfather. It was Fifi with whom my sister stayed one year when she didn't go on choir tour. Incidentally, it was Fifi's son Matt with whom Ruth's only known incidence of streaking took place.

I remember one time there was a spook house in the Pederson's Basement. I don't remember much about it, but I remember someone pulling on a light cord, or a clothesline attached to a light cord (the old kind that you pulled the string to turn on the light). I think that was Marilyn. I know that the Gatewood youth group
went there often for Afterglow or Singspiration after evening service. I recall Fifi's home always being a welcoming place, full of smells of baking and cooking. It was there, thanks to Matt, that I was introduced to the joys of a Peanut Butter Milkshake. Still have one now and then. Except I add chocolate to them now and call it a Reece's Milkshake.

Fifi told me in our last conversation that she counted my mom as her best friend ever outside of her family. What an honor! And she and my mom used to do much together. They sewed clothes for their families, the taught Eager Beavers together, I think it was Phyllis who taught my mom to can the dozens of jars of blueberries that then sat in our basement for years untouched...LOL. I think the joy was well and truly in the doing of it. I am guessing here, because the advent calendar, tree skirt and stockings are older than I am, but for years I always marveled that theirs were the same style as ours, but it occurs to one that they probably made them together. Fifi told us in a letter that one year when there was a lot of snow, mom pulled Sara and Ruth to her house on a sled. Now that involved going down Holden Street Hill, across Delridge Way and back up to get to the Pederson's home on. Now that is friendship.

Now Fifi and my mom are together again. I often wonder what heaven will be like as far as our relationships on earth are concerned. It has occurred to me that once we get there, we won't remember anything about here, because remembering earth would necessarily involve sad memories. But once we get there, will we remember the people who have gone before us? Will they remember and recognize us? or will be so rapt in the person and presence of Jesus Christ that all else will fade into insignificance? I tend to think that it is more towards that than anything else. Gods' word tells us very little about heaven. What little it tells boggles the mind though.

As the years go by, more and more of the people who were influential in my life are there. It will be good to get there, and I believe that all who believe in Jesus will be caught up together soon. God haste the day.