Grandma’s Hands
Eulogy by Miranda Campbell
Grandma’s Funeral Saturday, May 23, 2020

It is so sweet to be here with each of you today celebrating this precious life well lived. We all share this one thing in common today.. we were each deeply and unconditionally loved and cared for by Oleta: our Grandma, Aunt, Mother, and Friend.

I was reading through one of Grandma’s notebooks just last night, and in her own words she wrote, “Of all of life’s most treasured blessings, is the blessings of my dear family and friends.  My love is forever.  Nothing can change that.”

During my last few moments I had with Grandma in the nursing home, the day before she passed, I sat at her bedside along with my dad, her youngest son, and held her soft, warm hand. I was then reminded of all the love she had given over the years that flowed through her hands. 

As a little girl with small hands, she held and cared for her very first doll that she still had to this day, given to her by her grandpa’s oldest sister.  That marked the beginning of her love for dolls and the impressive collection she had from over the years.  

As a young girl, during the years of the Great Depression, her mom and dad would be out working the fields, so with helpful hands she made meals and took care of her younger siblings in the home. One story she told was about the long trip home from California to Arkansas in hopes to make it back by Christmas. Their car broke down in New Mexico, so they traded it for a Model A truck.  That took up all the money they had left, so they moved into a tent along a railroad.  With hard-working hands, Oleta helped pick cotton for money.  They finally made it to Texas to see Uncle Haskell who’s house was beautifully decorated for Christmas with roping decor across the ceiling. She says then is when she hoped to have a home of her own one day and decorate it bright and cheerful for Christmas. And she always did.  They continued their long journey back home on just five dollars that Uncle Haskell had given them.  There wasn’t room for all 8 to ride in the cab, so Oleta, with protective hands at only 12 years old, rode in the bed of the truck with her back against the cold wind to protect her three little sisters.  The roads were all dirt and muddy back then. Once they got stuck, and another time ran out of gas. But in her words, “With the help of a prayer and God” they finally made it back home to Arkansas by Christmas Eve.

In the Spring of 1939, their family moved out to Black Oak where, with willing hands, she helped raise beans, tomatoes, and hay.  She would carry water from a spring down a creek and back up a hill.  It was slick and icy in the winter, but she remembers those years in Black Oak to be some of her favorite years growing up. 

When Oleta was 16 years old, she got her first paying job serving with her hands at a restaurant on Dickson St.  The owner, Chuck Wheeler, had come out to their home at Black Oak to talk to her daddy about hiring Oleta. He said, “Country girls were better workers.”  Her daddy agreed to let her go to work. She added with a grin, “But Daddy didn’t know they sold beer at that restaurant.”

With loving hands, Oleta helped care for her sick grandmother who lived in town.  While going to Fayetteville High at the time, she would stay in town through the week with her Grandma Terry to help take care of her, then on Fridays after school, she would walk 8 miles back home to Black Oak to be with her family for the weekend because she was homesick.

Oleta went to school in Lincoln for some time and tried her hand at basketball. She was also announced Homecoming Queen while there. She was always so likeable and loved by all who knew her. 

Oleta grew up and met the handsome Robert Jesse Ferguson, the man she would give her hand in marriage to.  She loved and cared for him deeply, even still to this day. With loving, nurturing hands, she held and cared for 6 beautiful babies.. three girls and three boys, whom she counted each as a blessing.. never complaining about the thousands of diapers she changed and washed to be reused.  Oleta took care of the home, making it a warm and inviting place for her family, or for those who stopped by, offering hospitality to all.  As her family began to grow she opened her hands to new daughters and son-in-laws whom she loved as her own. They gave her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren to hold over the years, as well as many nieces and nephews. She most likely held many of you. My mom remembers Grandma looking at babies’ tiny hands, saying she wondered what those little hands would someday grow up and do one day.

With friendly hands, Oleta worked at the Post Office in the Union at the University of Arkansas selling stamps and collecting mail. She loved that job and they loved her, too. In recent years she said she still wished she worked there.. it was a wonderful job, getting to know and see so many people. 

With thoughtful hands, Grandma was so diligent to send birthday cards to her loved ones to receive on their special day, or write the most beautifully hand-written letters to send in the mail. I have kept each one, knowing that one day when she was gone, I would want to pull them out and still hear her thoughts and hellos as if she were still here with us today.  

With fashinable hands, Grandma always dressed so classy, with matching shoes and jewelry, and the perfect purse to tie it all together. She would keep her nails manicured and painted, usually dusty rose, one of her favorite colors.

Her beautifully decorated and organized home and yard showed the work of her hands with each and every treasure neatly in place. She had picture frames and albums all around to remind her each day of her loved ones.  She kept a picture of Terrel on the coffee table right in front of her living room chair so she could always see and remember his face.  Her doll collection adorned each room as they perfectly sat in place, looking as if they were real; I think they were to her.  She would say her home was “too cluttered”, but I would tell her, “No Grandma, it’s perfect the way it is.. It wouldn’t be Grandma’s house if it were any different.”  

In closing, I want to share one of my favorite memories in recent years with Grandma.  The girl cousins made it an annual event each year to spend a weekend with Grandma, whether flea-marketing looking for treasures, or a weekend in a cabin at Big Cedar Lodge. But the last one we had together was an old-fashioned sleepover at Grandma’s house, like old times when we were kids. We were all grown at this point and opted out of sleeping on a pallet on the floor like we would do as kids, so we brought a blow-up mattress, watched a movie, and stayed up late giggling and talking.  For breakfast she made her homemade biscuits and gravy, and we held hands around the table as she asked the blessing. 

But there was one request that Grandma had made before our special weekend together. She said she didn’t mind whatever we wanted to do, but asked that we go to church with her Sunday morning.  So we did. Arriving to church, you would have thought she had brought the most beautiful young ladies in all the town as she showed us off and introduced us to all her friends. She was so proud of us and honored to have her granddaughters at church with her.  Jasper sang some beautiful hymns and gave a powerful sermon that morning, but there is one song that I remember he sang that still stands out to me today.  Jasper called on Grandma out in the audience with us granddaughters sitting beside her. He said he would sing a song in honor of her because it was one she would often request, called, “I Want Us to Be Together in Heaven”.  As we listened to Jasper sing, I watched Grandma reach for her tissue in her purse and wipe away the tears. I knew right then that this was Grandma’s prayer and heart’s desire for each one of her loved ones.  

So with Grandma’s hands, she would pray. She prayed for her family and loved ones, her country, and the soldiers who served. She would pray for whatever concerned her, but especially for those she loved to give their life to the Lord and know Him, too. 

You see, we can lay our sweet Grandma at rest knowing she is in Heaven with Jesus today because of the free gift of salvation that she accepted.  It is a gift that is offered to each one of us too, if we will put our faith and trust in Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, asking Him to forgive us of our sins.  Our lives are then redeemed and made new because of His great love for us and the sacrifice He made on the cross. He is so full of grace and mercy.

 Grandma’s unconditional love ran deep, but it wasn’t one she mustered up on her own. It ran from a living well, straight from her Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Oleta displayed such love through her hands, and her legacy will continue to live on through each one of us!

Jasper closed with the hymn he had sang with us together at church that day.

I WANT US TO BE TOGETHER IN HEAVEN

             I

YOU MAY HAVE A FANCY CAR,
A BRAND NEW HOUSE THAT SHINES BY FAR.
YOU MAY LIVE TO BE A HUNDRED YEARS OLD.
BUT IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN SAVED
IT ALL ENDS IN THE GRAVE.
BUT I WANT US TO BE TOGETHER IN HEAVEN.

              II

YOU MAY BE A MILLIONAIRE
WEARING CLOTHES BEYOND COMPARE.
YOU MAY HAVE THE BEST THAT MONEY CAN BUY.
BUT IF THE BLOOD IS NOT APPLIED
THEN IN HELL YOU'LL LIFT YOUR EYES
BUT I WANT US TO BE TOGETHER IN HEAVEN.

            CHORUS

I WANT US TO BE TOGETHER IN HEAVEN.
I WANT TO WALK DOWN THE STREETS OF PURE GOLD.
I WANT TO RUN THROUGH THE FIELDS OF GREEN CLOVER.
SEE THE MANSION SMELL THE FLOWERS
HEAR THEM SINGING IT'S ALL OURS
SEE THE RIVERS GENTLY FLOWING
FEEL THE GENTLE BREEZES BLOWING.
I WANT US TO BE TOGETHER IN HEAVEN.

WILL WE BE TOGETHER IN HEAVEN.