In Loving Memory Of Pauline Robinson  1934 -2004 Teresa P. Thompson     © Copyright 2004 by Teresa P. Thompson

Pauline Robinson, our dear wife, mother, grandmother and friend, passed away on April 29, leaving behind a legacy of tenderness and kindness that reflected in everything she touched.

Everyone knew her as the most optimistic person they had ever met. No matter how gloomy a situation appeared, Pauline could never see the dark side of anything. She was truly the “light” of all our lives, guiding each of us to follow our own God-Given destiny.

She and husband Luther Robinson, Sr. recently celebrated their Golden Anniversary. As a wife, she had been the help-mate that God must have intended for every wife to be to their husbands. She spent the biggest part of her life raising and rearing their five children, as well as working outside the home to help meet their financial needs.

She spent many of her early years working in retail sales, and in her later years she went into business as owner and operator of “Country Florist” in Harlan, Kentucky---A venture that she so many times described as a “dream of a life-time.”

Pauline said she knew that floral design was her calling the moment that she entered into the school of design in Michigan.

“I just hated leaving my family long enough to get through the training, but after it was all over I realized I had done the right thing for all of us,” Pauline had said so many times.

Even though all her children were grown by the time she decided to take the florist training, she still felt the need to be there for everyone. But that was just the kind of person Pauline was---always thinking of others before herself.

During the last few years of her life here on Earth, she spent a lot of time reminiscing about her floral career and how much she enjoyed the design business. She once said that she nurtured it much like she had nurtured her children; and it had been a joy to watch it grow into a successful thriving business.

Although she insisted that she was certain that floral design and decorating had been her calling in life, it was during the last few years that she discovered another remarkable calling within herself. She discovered that she had an incredible ability and love for writing.

Shortly after her first near-death experience five years ago, she began to keep a journal. She would write in it almost every day. Within a couple of years she began to make comments about how much she enjoyed writing. She would say that it was so soothing just to sit down and pour her feelings out onto paper.

I began to see such wonderful expressions on her face when she would talk about her writing and how the journals she was leaving behind would someday be read by her children. As a writer myself, I could relate to how my mother-in-law was feeling about this new-found love. Perhaps I was the one person who could understand her love for creating stories that would forever go down through the generations of her family.

Although she had no major desire to have her writing published or to become famous for it, it was clear that she had the desire to write embedded in her soul.

As time went by I began to think that maybe she would enjoy reading and perhaps writing for the storyhouse. I began telling her about it and some of the wonderful stories that were displayed there. It wasn’t long before she would come to my house and ask for me to pull up the stories on the computer and let her read some of them.

I could see the look of desire to be apart of those authors in her eyes as she read every last word. Then it hit me that she should write a story concerning her near-death experience. It didn’t take much coaxing at all, for soon she was busy with paper and pen.

I will never forget the day that she first saw her story on the storyhouse. That story could have been published in a national magazine and I really don’t think she would have been any more proud than she was at that moment.

She was absolutely mesmerized at the thought of being a part of such wonderful writers. I think it also gave her a deep comfort to know that she had created that story from something that had happened to her. She loved the idea of sharing it with the world. She truly loved the storyhouse and the opportunities it gives to aspiring writers.

From that moment I knew that she was forever the writer that she didn’t even know that she could be. She soon began to read every book that she could get her hands on. She would get up early in the morning and sit outside on her back porch with a book and her Bible. She seemed to be engulfed in the stories. Perhaps the most exciting stories that she read was the series entitled “Left Behind.” She would read one right after another keeping her Bible close at hand so that she could look up the verses that were given in the books. Those books will forever be a memory that will stay embedded in my mind as a bond that she and I shared above everything else. She once told me that she hoped that collection of books would go down in her family as a treasured heirloom for many generations to come.

Another memory that will perhaps always stay close to my heart is the day she told me that she would like to have a computer.

Anyone who knew her knew that although she was a very intelligent person, she was from the “Old School” when computers didn’t exist. She would tell me so many times that she would love to have one, but that she felt it was a luxury that she was too “old” for. Just as many times, I would remind her that a person is never too old to learn something knew.

“Still I would never just go out and buy one for myself,” she had said. “The kids and Luke would think I was crazy.”

After that comment I knew that she had to have a computer so I casually mentioned it to her husband. For Christmas that year she got that computer as gift from him. I will never forget the way she acted when she realized that she actually had a computer of her own---she was thrilled. However, it soon became a realization that due to her arthritis problems it was difficult for her to operate the keyboard and the mouse. Even though she learned everything that she could about using it, she still had problems with her hands. But that didn’t stop her. Her number one goal seemed to be to find a way to operate that computer.

I had plans of purchasing her a voice activated machine that would do the typing for her at the sound of her voice. I planned that as this years Christmas gift from my daughter---her youngest grandchild. I am certain that had she had that machine her problems with the basics of that computer would have been solved.

The memory that I will forever hold will be the one where she insisted that she was going to practice enough to make her hands work the way she wanted them too. She was so determined to use that computer. I will always wonder if Luke really understands what a treasured gift he gave her when he bought her that computer.

I also hope that everyone who reads her story on the storyhouse understands how much she enjoyed writing that story and sharing it with the world; and how much she loved the other stories that are posted.

Although Pauline is no longer with us today, and I am certain that she now walks among the Angels in Heaven, I truly believe that one single story that she had posted on the storyhouse was a great light in her life here on earth.

I, along with her husband and children, hope that everyone who reads her story will be able to see the inner beauty and warmth of this woman that so many loved and respected.

You may also read my story about this remarkable woman and the man who loved her  entitled “Pauline---A True Story.”   (Click here.)

I leave you with these last words that I wrote in honor of this great woman---words that I truly believe came to me through knowing what she would say if she could have written them herself.

Death----It is not about me, but more about the ones I leave behind.

Death----A frightening word when uttered from the lips of my survivors.

Death----Not an end, but only a form of transportation to eternal life.

Death----Has no power over me---A child of God.

Death----Was conquered for me on the Cross at Calvary.

Simply Put.... Death----Is not where I am or my destiny.
 
 

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