Emma Pearl Allbritton was the only grandparent I ever really knew. I called her “Grandma” and my cousin called her “Mema”. My Grandpa, James Allbritton, passed away in 1990 when I was seven, and my dad’s parents were both gone before I was born. My grandma died early in the morning on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at the age of 96. She had plenty of time to plan for this eventuality, and I had always envisioned being there at her funeral, maybe I would speak, but for certain, I would be there. However, I will be on a mission trip in Mexico starting tomorrow, so since I am going to miss the momentous occasion of celebrating the life of this great lady, I wanted to share my memories here. These are my memories, I can’t attest to their accuracy, but this is how I remember things. The human memory is notoriously fallible, mine especially, so some memories may be rose-colored, but this is how I remember my grandma. This post is in no way complete, since even the best writer couldn’t condense 96 years of life into anything so limited as a blog post, and it will also be missing some pictures; I have some of my grandma’s photo albums, but many of the pictures of me and my siblings growing up are at my mom’s house in Houston, so I will share what I have, and I apologize to anyone who gets left out.

My grandma was always such a warm and loving person to me, she always had a sunny smile for me and fun and interesting conversation. I grew up in South Texas so I didn’t get to come up to Seymour very often, usually just for Thanksgiving. It was a seven hour drive and we’d always arrive late at night or in the wee hours of the morning. When you cross that much of Texas, everything changes; the culture, the climate even. I knew when we were getting close to Grandma’s house because the temperature would drop considerably and we’d start seeing bundled Christmas trees for sale stacked up against the walls of every Allsup’s (they don’t have Allsup’s down south, or if they do, they didn’t in the 90’s) We’d pull into the driveway and try (unsuccessfully) to make minimal ruckus as we exited the car with two adults, four kids and roughly 70 suitcases. Grandma would always come out and greet us, give us hugs and make sure we were tucked in tight. Thanksgivings in Seymour were always a big family affair, with lots of cooking, lots of yelling at the Dallas Cowboys on TV, and lots of outside time watching my brothers Steven and Brian, toss around a football with my uncles Jimmy and Tommy, and my cousin Glenn, or collecting pecans from the big tree in the back yard of Grandma’s house with my sister Katheryn. My Grandma made a stellar pecan pie, and “pink stuff” (as we called it – she called it “ambrosia”). Sometimes at meal times (not holiday meals) she’d sarcastically admonish us, “Yall don’t ruin my good china,” as she handed us paper plates and napkins. She had a great sense of humor.

My grandma was very musical, she played the flute and the piano, and could read music and sing. She played flute in the band at Baylor University where she majored in voice. My sister Katheryn and I always loved playing piano together with Grandma. She taught us “Heart and Soul” and “Chopsticks” and another song I can never remember the name of but I could play it for you even now. When I grew up and had kids of my own, they also got to play the piano with great Grandma and I cherish that for them. 

The year after my grandpa passed away, I got to come spend a week in Seymour in the summer, just me and grandma, and although it probably seems boring, it was pretty exciting stuff for little seven year old Liz. I asked my grandma to wake me up with this really cool Mickey Mouse jukebox alarm clock she had and she did, every morning. We would go down to the shop and see what Tommy and Jimmy were working on, and they put me to work pasting the paper over the wire hangers to brand them as “Tip Top Cleaners and Jewelry”, so for any of y’all who got wonky hangers on your dry cleaning in the summer of 1991, I apologize, it was my first job. I got to meet my new cousin, Lauren, that summer, her mom, my aunt Jeannie, who was going to marry my uncle Tommy soon, and it was very exciting for me. Jeannie and Tommy and Lauren all came over to Grandma’s house to watch wheel of fortune with us and we just had a grand old time. Lauren and I got to go swimming at the city pool, and Grandma took me to get burgers at Dairy Queen and we ate them at the playground in that big park in town. I got to be here in Seymour during the solar eclipse that year, and Jeannie was working at the hospital and bought us all strips of x-ray film so we could look at the eclipse, I remember the street was filled with people all watching the shadow of the moon cover the sun. It was the kind of core memory you create as a kid, making extraordinary out of the mundane.

When I was younger we did a lot more family stuff, traveling to see the Allbrittons in Jasper and the Grubens in Bonham and Dallas, and my Aunt Janet in the panhandle, but as I got older we mostly just came back to Seymour.

I remember the first time I came to Seymour on my own, I was a freshman in college at UT and I studied my paper map of Texas and got really happy when I realized I could just take 183 all the way to Seymour from Austin, until I tried it and learned that 183 makes several 90 degree turns between here and there. When I finally arrived I got some one-on-one time with my grandma, because I had beaten my parents who were traveling in from Houston, and I remember just sitting in the living room with grandma and having a grown-up conversation. She asked me very pointed questions and gave me stern advice in the loving, no-nonsense way she had. I don’t recall specifics, but I was probably not very forthcoming about the abysmal state of my grades, not wanting to be compared to Mr. Salutatorian (who some of y’all may know as my cousin Glenn Allbritton) but she knew somehow anyway and cautioned me to not be throwing away my opportunities. It was the first time she leveled with me as an adult, and I saw in her some similarities to my own mom, who had been telling me the same thing for years, but kids always seem to be able to hear grandparents better than parents. 

After we were married, Eric and I began bringing our kids out to visit in the summer time, and I recall one time Grandma gave my five-year-old, Isabella, a little travel manicure kit as a gift, and I thought she was playing with it, come to find out she was charging my uncles and aunt for manicures. I think she got $8 out of Jimmy before I put a stop to it. Allbritton stock are nothing if not industrious and resourceful, I guess. 

Grandma loved Jesus with all her heart, and dedicated her life to making sure everyone got a chance to know Him. She was very good at relational discipleship, ministering to people God put in her path in Seymour, Texas. I remember after she visited Israel in 1994, she told a story about how a man on the trip was so enraptured about being on a street where Jesus had walked, and how she realized that you don’t have to go halfway across the world to find Jesus, he’s with us no matter where we are and no matter where we go, in the streets of old Jerusalem, but also in the streets of Seymour, Texas. And that’s how she lived her life. 

Emma Pearl Allbritton would be the first to tell you that she wasn’t perfect, and she wasn’t, because none of us are, but she loved with her whole heart, and tried her best with the hand God dealt her, no matter whether it was a winning hand or not. She loved her family fiercely and was, if not perfect, the perfect Grandma (and Mema) any of us could have asked for. I know that, more than anything, she is so happy to be home with her savior and so many of her family, friends and loved ones who preceded her in death. The song she requested for the funeral, I had never heard it before, but the lyrics say: 

Though shadows deepen and my heart bleeds
I will not question the way He leads
This side of heaven we know in part
I will not question a broken heart
We’ll talk it over in the by and by
We’ll talk it over, my Lord and I
I’ll ask the reasons, He’ll tell me why
When we talk it over in the by and by
I’ll hide my heartache behind a smile
And wait for reasons ’til after while
And though He tries me, I know I’ll find
That all my burdens are silver-lined
We’ll talk it over in the by and by
We’ll talk it over, my Lord and I
I’ll ask the reasons, He’ll tell me why
When we talk it over in the by and by
I’ll ask the reasons, He’ll tell me why
When we talk it over in the by and by

“We’ll Talk it Over” by the Gaither Vocal Band

I know that today all her questions are being answered. First Corinthians 13:12 tells us: “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” When you zoom out, that entire chapter is about love. Love is patient, love is kind, etc. First John 4:8 tells us that God is love, and I hope that love will be the legacy my Grandma leaves behind. Forevermore, Emma Pearl Gruben Allbritton is reunited with her savior, and with all her loved ones, and I know she would want us to be joyful about that for her.