GOD'S BOUQUET

Lillie Oquila Pruit born March 30, 1885 Montague County, Texas

William Thomas Lindley born August 11, 1882 Taylor County, Texas

William and Lillie married September 22, 1904 Monument, New Mexico

The small green house on Henshaw Road was trimmed in white. Two rocking chairs sat on the front porch. The inside of the house always smelled like peach cobbler. My Grandma and Grandpa lived there.

Grandma and Grandpa were poor. Grandma worked downtown at night. She cleaned the offices in the tall building where lawyers worked. She rode the bus to work. When she finished working she had to walk home because the bus didn't run that late.

Grandpa sold household products from door to door. He had an old car he drove on his sales route. He wouldn't drive after dark because his eyesight was bad. Grandma never learned to drive. That is why she had to walk home late at night from her job. Grandpa sold such things as lemon and vanilla extract, liniment, spices, shampoo, lotion, toothpaste, toothbrushes, cherry flavored syrup for iced drinks and cocoa. He didn't make much money but he liked visiting with the housewives and enjoyed being offered cake and coffee at their tables.

Grandma was the best cook in the world. But the thing I liked best was when she made peach cobbler. The phone would ring at my house and it would be Grandma saying, "You better get yourself right down here, Billy, or else your Grandpa is gonna eat up all this peach cobbler!"

Then she'd hang up. Lucky for me I lived in the next block so Grandpa never did get to eat the entire cobbler before I high tailed it down there.

Eating that cobbler was just the best thing in the world. But the next best thing in the world was listening to Grandpa's stories while we ate the cobbler.

Why, when he was seventeen years old he'd ridden horseback on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana. He'd worked on a ranch that had hundreds of cattle. One time he cut his index and middle fingers real bad when butchering a calf and forever after those two fingers were stiffened into a permanent peace sign.

He'd tell how he met Grandma at a dance. He said she was the "Belle of the Ball" and she said he was the most handsome man she'd ever laid eyes on. And she always said she never kissed him until they got married.

He'd drag out their wedding picture and I'd laugh every time I saw it. Grandpa looked bug-eyed staring straight into the camera. Grandma was dressed old fashioned and kind of buck toothed. I thought they must have been blinder than a bat to think each one was so good looking when they met. I liked the way they looked now lots better.

By this time the cobbler was about all gone and Grandma was looking like she wished we'd get out of the kitchen so she could clean it up. So Grandpa and I took the hint. We'd get up from the table saying, "That's the best cobbler that ever came out of that oven and we hope it ain't the last one."

We always said that. But one time when we said it we never had any idea that it WAS the last cobbler to ever come out of that oven.

Grandma was religious. Grandpa was too but he thought God had a sense of humor. One time I just happened to be there at lunchtime and just happened to get invited to stay for biscuits, gravy, fried chicken, corn on the cob and peach cobbler. We all bowed our heads and Grandpa said the blessing, "Biscuits rough and biscuits tough but thank God there’s biscuits enough"

Grandma said, "Now Willie, that ain't the right example to set for Billy." Grandpa said, "Oh, Lillie, I think God has a sense of humor." And he winked at me.

Anyway, Grandma wouldn't let us eat a crumb until we bowed our heads again and she said the blessing proper like this, "Dear Lord we thank thee for this food and may strength gained from it be used in service to thee, amen." Grandpa looked serious and echoed a loud, "Amen."

Grandpa ate all kinds of funny things just to impress me like sugar on canned tomatoes and sugar on beans. One time he even put hot peppers on his ice cream and said to me, "Ah, Billy, this is finer than frog's hair".

Grandma said, "Don't pay him no mind, Billy, and unless you got a stomach like a goat don't you try it neither."

One night Grandma couldn't go to work. Grandpa said she had a stroke. She was sick for a long time. Grandpa couldn't go on his sales route anymore 'cause he looked after Grandma. There wasn't any more peach cobbler either.

My Mama would go down each day to help with Grandma. Grandpa would say, "Now, Marie , you just get on back home. You got enough to do at your house. Me and Lillie is a doin' just great here."

And they were too. Grandpa took care of Grandma just like she was a baby. The only bad thing was he just never did learn to make a peach cobbler.

When Grandma finally got her voice back after a long time in the bed she called me over to the bedside and said, "Billy, I been a layin' here a thinkin'. Why is God lettin' me linger on so long? The answer came to me like this. When I go out in the yard to pick a bouquet I pick the flowers that are in full bloom; not the wilted ones or the ones that ain't opened yet. I pick 'em at just what I consider to be the right time. And I think God does the same thing when he makes up His bouquet. He plucks us from this earth when we can add the most beauty to His bouquet. I think He's just a leavin' me here until that right time when I can contribute the most beauty to His heavenly bouquet."

Well, I guess Grandma finally reached full bloom 'cause she died not too long after that.

Sometimes when I'm in my bed at night, thinkin, I sorta see that bouquet of God's. It's in a big white vase on God's table. There are all kinds of flowers in it. And right in the center is a beautiful white Lily. I know that's Grandma. And in my thoughts I go over and smell it. Funny, but that bouquet never smells like flowers should. It always sorta smells more like peach cobbler to me.