A Farewell to Grandma Karla

My grandma's funeral service was yesterday in Topeka, Kansas. Josh and I weren't able to fly down for the service, but my grandpa did ask me to write Grandma's eulogy, and my brother Blake read it. What a privilege.

I am so honored to have had a grandma who tried to always reflect Christ. Death is bittersweet- she's free, but we'll miss her here.

Here's the eulogy I wrote, erased, rewrote, and then tweaked. It is incredibly difficult to mash someone's lifetime into a few words.

Putting into Words, What Words Can’t Really Say

Many different adjectives and nouns could describe my grandma. Grandma was a whistler, a hand-holder, and a wonderful hugger. She was a ventriloquist, a cake baker and decorator, a practical joker, a youth group leader, a traveling saleswoman, a jewelry saleswoman, and a Mary Kay consultant. While grandma spent some time doing these things, she spent a lifetime being a daughter, a sister, a mother, grandma, great-grandma, friend, and wife. She was many things to many people, but above all, she loved.

Grandma loved games! Card games, board games, picture games- she was always ready for a challenge, and a win. There are many lessons to be learned while playing games. Sportsmanship. Integrity. Honesty. Humbleness. If you watched and listened, you could glean words of wisdom and life lessons from Grandma while playing games. She once said to Grandpa after beating him at Pitch, “It was only a game…But I won!” See? Honesty.

Grandma loved life. She had a true vigor for living. She embraced her time in each of her roles with zeal. Grandma rarely complained about her odd jobs, and she almost always found something to be excited about and have fun with. Grandma loved life so much and wanted so badly to live that she conquered cancer for nearly thirty years. She decided during her first battle in the 80’s that life was worth fighting for, so she made firm resolution to not just live life, but to love it.

Grandma loved people. In her own words, she “always loved people and was a social bug.” She and grandpa made a ministry out of inviting singles to their house for dinner and games. She loved that ministry and each person who stepped into her home. She and grandpa used to lead a youth group, and by their love, teens were impacted with the love of Christ. Grandma always had jobs where she was able to work with people. Karla’s Cakes and Balloons, JC Penny’s, going door to door to sell Tupperware- each job revolved around forming positive relationships with people. And family. Any form- from immediate family to third cousins twice removed. Family was always a cherished piece of Grandma’s life, and family members were always her favorite people.

Grandma loved Grandpa. Grandpa Larry is a pest to many, a father to four, a grandpa to eleven, a great-grandpa to three, but a lover to only one, to Karla. The two were synonymous with one another. It’s impossible to think Karla without thinking Larry, or think Larry without thinking Karla. June 5th would have marked their 53rd wedding anniversary. Many people fall very short of such a landmark, but Grandma and Grandpa celebrated each year deeper in love than the previous year. Not many couples are quite so perfectly matched, but these two lived a testimony of what Christ’s love truly is. They were faithful. They were servants. They were accountable. They were authentic. And let’s face it, love is messy. It’s not easy to love, and love isn’t just some butterfly emotion you feel. Love is a choice, even when it’s hard. And after 52 years of marriage, Grandma and Grandpa still chose each other. Not the kind of choice you submit to and grit your teethe to and wait for the time pass. No. Theirs was the kind of choice you rejoice in, and celebrate, and eagerly wake up to each and every morning.

Grandma loved God. Her dad taught her to value integrity and honesty while her mom taught her to laugh and have fun, to care and love. But both taught her, as Grandma put it, to “live by the Bible...and if we didn’t want to, Daddy made us want to.” When Grandma Karla was twelve, she gave her heart to Christ and decided for herself that she wanted to follow after His example. Grandma said, “My main goal was to please God,” and she tried to reflect Christ’s actions and words throughout her life.

In October, I received word that my grandma’s cancer was back, but not just back, aggressive. I talked to my principal, scrawled out lesson plans, left my tenth and twelfth grade students, and caught a flight from Idaho to Kansas.

In the days I was able to spend with my grandparents, I asked Grandma if she was scared. She answered me simply by asking, “Do you have any idea what it’s like to live with a time clock over your head?”

So often when dealing with death, language fails. Words fail. Death was never part of the plan- we weren’t meant for separation. And we simply don’t know what to say. It’s usually when we realize that death is creeping in that we begin to live.

But Grandma lived and loved fiercely. She always did. She didn’t wait until her clock began to run out, she loved throughout the whole span of her life.

I think her question, “Do you have any idea what it’s like to live with a time clock over your head,” was more for herself than me.

Grandma’s voice wobbled a bit when she then looked at me and asked, “Have you ever known anyone who’s been healed?”

Tears flooded my eyes as I looked at her and said, “You, Grandma. About a year ago.” She had had cancer cells numbering in the thousands, and within weeks, they dropped below ten, and the doctors couldn’t explain it.

She said, “So I got a year? Why would God only give me a year?”

And it didn’t dawn on me until now. God didn’t give her a year. He gave us a year. Grandma loved so completely and passionately. She lived a great life. God gave us a year, to soak up a little bit more of mom…sister…grandma…friend….and wife. God gave us a year to love her.

We’re all dying. Birth is initial, death is inevitable. It’s the space in-between that we call life, and that life is meant for loving. Grandma modeled that.

First Peter tells us to “love one another earnestly,” and I John tells us that whoever loves “knows God.” Love like Karla Lesslie loved.


We can’t have Life without death. Life is Christ, but we won’t meet Christ until we travel through the grave. But he’s waiting to greet us at the gates of eternity, waiting to love us. The true promise of Life lies on the brink of death. We win. Because Christ is the ultimate prize. But that doesn’t make death any easier for the people left here.

What an incredible impact Grandma Karla made. And while we will miss her, and cry for her, ultimately, we are loved and she was loved.

Paul tells us in Romans 8, verses 37-39 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our LORD.”

Nothing. No thing will separate us from the love of God.

Grandma wins, because Grandma is with Love, and that love is Jesus Christ.

And that is worth celebrating.