Celebrating Aunt Mae

Last Thursday, February 5, 2015, our family lost our matriarch as our dearly beloved Ella Mae Rushton passed away peacefully in her sleep after 99+ blessed years of life. Not that life was always easy. Many challenges and struggles were a way of life for our Great Depression Era relatives, but life is truly what you make of it, working with the cards that you are dealt. That was a true generation of fighters. Born on September 12, 1915, my Great-Aunt Mae saw many changes take place in America, in herself and her home town of Excelsior Springs, Missouri, where our family has lived for many generations. Being that her nephew, my father Bob Todd, left Excelsior Springs to join the Navy and fight in both World War II & the Korean War, married and settled in California after, I didn’t get to spend much time and enjoy her. I do remember our family trips with our family back in Missouri and the occasional trips out to California that Aunt Mae made to visit her son Wally’s family and us. They are cherished memories and I can still recall her beautiful unique voice.

Yet, my greatest memory of Aunt Mae is that she was such a strong and faithful Christian. I found out from my dad that she had been praying for him for decades and when she found out that he had accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, she called him because her prayer was answered. In her later years of convalescent assisted-care, she would still make the trip to attend every family reunion and blessed us all of us by giving a wonderful prayer of blessing for the family. I shall treasure the precious moments that I was able to experience with this pillar of a woman. Sure, this priceless woman lived a ultra-full life of 99+ years and we can only hope that we have such longevity from that lineage, but beyond the living, there was a life, a dynamic personality, a unique character and a blessed elder for us.

Aunt Mae left a legacy by her faith and love of God and family, which has deepened my relationship with God and our family. With her passing, we have lost a generation, but it is up to us, this generation, to keep her mission of love, faith and family going for the generations to come. She was blessed to be a blessing. May we continue to follow her lead.

In Christ, Brian