Though my grandmother lived to the Age of 93, she remained a pioneer woman all her life. She always liked the old ways best. Though she did agree to have electricity wired when the REA (Rural Electric Cooperative) finally came to our little corner of the world, she still ironed with the old cast iron she had used all her life.

The bottom plate of the iron released with a twist of the handle. While one plate heated on her wood stove, she ironed with the other. I asked her once why she didn't use an electric iron. She replied that she didn't like the way her clothes looked.

My uncle bought her a new gas cook stove and installed it for her. She promptly uninstalled it and brought her old wooden cook stove back into the house.

She said she couldn't get her baked goods to turn out right on the gas stove. That was Grandma Higgins--fiercely independent and fiercely devoted to doing things her way.

She churned her own butter all her life. If I happened to be there when she was about to churn, I would work the churn while she made us a pan of homemade biscuits,

>Then she would break out a jar of her homemade plum jelly--my favorite-- which she had made from wild plums that grew in thickets along the roads. It makes my mouth water just to remember it. Out of the oven would come those wonderful, fluffy biscuits, cooked just to the right shade of golden brown. She would slather them generously with the fresh, golden butter we had just churned, then add a generous layer of the succulent jelly on top.

As we sat savoring our treat, Grandma would be giving me a Bible lesson, quizzing me on my last Sunday School lesson or teaching me one of her own. Grandma Higgins was God's personal evangelist--sent to save and convert her entire family to her special brand of Christianity. No one was immune from Grandma Higgins' evangelistic fervor--the children, the grandchildren, the daughters-in-law, the sons-in-law.

Her influence brought an awfully lot of the Higgins clan to the Lord and her influence continues today through her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great, great grandchildren, several of whom are now ministers of the gospel or married to ministers.

And she put her money where her mouth was. We lived just a half mile up the road from her; but, if for whatever reason, we did not go to church, she walked. It was a mile from her little home to our country church, but Grandma Higgins did not miss church--PERIOD!! She was there for every service, night or day, rain or shine, winter or summer!

Though someone usually brought her home, it did not bother her one wit if she had to walk--even at night. She read faithfully from her bible every single day and prayed on her knees every night. I have walked into her bedroom when spending the night with her to find her on her knees beside her bed praying silently and fervently.

Quite a woman! My grandmother!