My alarm seemed to sound early this morning. I rolled out of bed and checked my phone on my way to let out my Boston terrier Mugsy and make sure daughter Stella was up. But a text from my good friend stopped me cold: Eleanor passed away. God bless her soul. She was a major part of my life.

I texted the news to my family text group. It seems strange and yet fitting, almost three months since the unthinkable happened with my dad, Mrs. Eleanor would leave us too. In my imagination they are happy and whole together--the best of friends along with so many of their loved ones gone before--in a place where there are no more tears, only joy. The idea of it comforts. It is what they believed, where their mountain-moving faith told them they were going.

She will always be Mrs. Eleanor to me. Even that was a switch later in life from her true identity. For the years I was closest to her she was Mrs. Law, or as she signed it, Miz Slaw. Mrs. Eleanor Law was my first-grade teacher at Elgin B. Milton Elementary School and the wife of the pastor at the First Baptist Church of Ozark when my family moved there in 1977 before my kindergarten year. His name was Roy Gean Law, and he baptized my best friend Lori Johnston and me when we made our professions of faith at age 6.

One of my earliest and best memories of them was shortly before Christmas one night when they showed........

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