On My Great Grandmother Sadie Mae

My great grandmother was a woman who, as they say, walked with the lord in many ways all of her life. Her motto, which was printed on her obituary was "Cast your bread upon the water and it will come back to you."My great grandmother's heart and home was always open and there was no one who was turned away from her table and no one who did not recieve what help she could give when they came to recieve it. And many did come. One anecdote I remember is my grandmother telling me, quite fitfully--for it slightly disturbed her and the rest of her siblings, of how her mother told them to make sure to give some food to the hobos who came by looking for it(the railroad was very accessible to my great grandparents' home for the hobos). My grandmother tells of this one time a man came by, who wanted food, and had a story to tell. He had been in another town and had had fifteen cents to his name. He offered the fifteen cents to a woman at a house who said that she would cook him fifteen cents worth of food. The woman crossed him and took his money and refused to cook anything. My grandmother says that man burned that woman's house to the ground..and there was an account of it in the paper of how no one knew how the fire had been started.... Back to my great, great grandmother, she never refused anyone and always gave what she had to whomever needed it. My grandmother and her siblings are quite resentful in that they felt they never had a home to themselves as there was always someone else in it, someone to share everything with. People would come and set a baby down in my great grandmother's arms and that child often wouldnt leave until they were ready to go to college or off into the world in whichever way they went. Sadie Mae and her husband, my great grandfather John Archie, were pious people, who believed firmly in the lord and who spoke directly to that power at all times. They never feared or wanted for anything because they walk with god. It is amazing to think that Sadie not only reared her eight children that survived to adulthood(she had two that died as infants) and educated them all, but that she did much of the same for dozens of others as well. If she had a bed, you could sleep in it. If she had food, you were more than welcome to eat. She embodied the true principles of Christianity and what it truly means to be a good person.She was selfless and she had a deep concern for humanity. She is truly an inspiration.