Remembering Roselyn.

Mother’s Day weekend we travelled to Carrollton, Alabama to honor my mother-in-law, Roselyn DeWitt who passed away in September.

Carrollton, Alabama is a small farm town in the western part of the state where my husband was born and where they lived and farmed until he was 9 years old.

Her 6 children, friends and extended family gathered from all over to remember her and celebrate the incredible woman, mother, wife, grandmother, and great-grandmother she was.

There is so much to say about who she was; the hard work, the sacrifices she made, the love and energy she poured into her family.

It wasn’t an easy time, the 1960s in Alabama.

Roselyn was the engine that kept their family running.

She was resourceful. She was tireless. She was devoted.

My sister in-law and brother in-law spoke, as well as the minister leading the service who was a close friend of the family and knew Roselyn well.

There were reoccurring themes.

Her love for her family, for her community, her church and most of all, her love for music.

You see, Roselyn was a singer.

She sang often at events; at her church, weddings, funerals, in the community.

She was the choir director for her church and shared that love with anyone and everyone who received it.

She loved singing.

I have fond memories of visiting and sitting down at her piano with her and hearing her sing her favorite songs.

She glowed when we would do that.

Her singing was effortless. It was generous. It was joyful.

She sang in a choir in Auburn, Alabama up until her last years of her life.

She was devoted to her passion of singing and made sure it was expressed, even when it wasn’t easy.

When it wasn’t safe for her to drive, her eldest son Wyatt would take her to and from rehearsal every week.

When we heard Roselyn didn’t have much time left we jumped in the car and were able to be by her side when she passed.

David sang to her. He leaned in close and sang some of her favorite hymns.

There seemed to be a flicker of recognition.

We hoped she heard.

At her funeral, a man who was close to Roselyn growing up said she convinced him to join the choir when he was a boy and that the idea of it terrified him.

But she was persuasive.

He spoke of the impact that had on him; the joy he received in that experience.

As I was sitting in the service hearing those who spoke about her and her love for singing, I realized the impact she had on so many of us.

How she inspired, how she communicated, how she loved and how she mothered through music.

She inspired us all to share our voices, to express the joy we feel through music, to sing our hearts out.

And that’s what I’ll be doing this week.

I'll be singing my heart out in honor of Roselyn, the original Joyful Singer.