Wednesday at around 3:00 PM my mother Lorraine Netterville Smith Maltby slipped through the veil into eternity. She is resting comfortably now with the King. She is a generous lady whose home was always open to those in need. She was holding hands with Lacy and Bradley when she transitioned. I was on the road somewhere in Louisiana and unable to be there.
Bradley’s attempt at saying grandmother as a toddler forever branded her as “Mogie” to the younger generation. She had a fierce loyalty to family and friends. She was born in the family home in the thick forested hills of the wilderness of Southwestern Mississippi. She was a beautiful girl who was “spoiled rotten” by everyone. She graduated valedictorian at Crosby High School which also served as the middle/elementary school. I’m not sure of the size of her graduating class but it was surely only a handful. She soon there after fell in love with Winfred Lamar Smith, my father. It was a storybook romance…the beautiful girl from the Hiram community and the handsome young man who was so generous and so loved by all from the Sankum community. The story however would soon take a dark turn. Her life partner would be taken suddenly and unexpectedly. I was an 18 month old toddler and my sister Debra was three day from being born. I can’t imagine what that must have been like. In fact, I’m pretty sure she never completely recovered. It surely contributed to her quirky nature and her radical generosity.
She spent several decades working in the Budget and Finance Office of the U.S. Forest Service in Jackson Mississippi. She eventually remarried briefly and presented us with my beloved sister Denice who herself was tragically widowed at an early age. (Denice has since found her prince charming in the South of England and moved away to the U.K.).
Our home was always a strange collection of stray humans and animals as she could not bear to see any of God’s creatures in need. She was in short an amazing corner of the artistic tapestry of God’s creation.
Please join me in celebrating her amazing life on Saturday morning 7/1/2017 at Hopewell United Methodist Church 264 Hopewell Road, Crosby, MS. Visitation will be 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM and the service will be at 11:00 AM.
These are the times for reflection on life. Please know my friends that this life is just a facade…a proving ground if you will. One can slip through the thin membrane that separates this dimension from the eternal one at any given moment. I beg you to give thought to your travel plans now while there is time.
Love,
Daryl