Brandon's letter to his sister Justine "Honey" Maggart.

This is a private letter but you may listen if you want to…

Dear God,

In case you didn’t know, my sister, Justine, better known here on earth as Honey, is on her way to Heaven. So, you’d better get ready. She could be there already. On second thought, if she were already there you would know about it. She tends to make her presence known.

You’re a lucky guy, God; or a lucky gal, we’re not sure which, and it really doesn’t matter. Honey and I discussed it and since; when Moses asked you what your name was and you said, “I am that I am”, well, that didn’t seem quite gender specific. But we do know that you are the very best at what you do. And that’s what’s important. Anyway, when Honey gets there… She likes boats… She has been a really good person, so I hope you’ll have a nice new houseboat for her. If you could do that, that would be muchly appreciated. That would be heaven for Honey. And I can promise you that she will take good care of it. Also, she’ll be a good neighbor and an asset to the community. Just wait and see: Before you know it, all the neighbors will be hanging around her boat. See, she’s a very good listener. So, people do love to get her ear. And she won’t halfway listen either—She takes it ALL in and then (You might want to warn them about this) –If they ask her stuff, they’d better be prepared to hear the truth.

I, myself, will be talking to her quite often. We have to keep up on all our kids. (Five here and one up there for her, and six here and one up there for me). And that’s not counting the grandchildren and the great grandchildren.

Honey has J. C., her high school sweetheart and husband for the whole time. (nearly sixty years) and five sons that she loves a lot. And believe me they’re a handful! Especially the five boys. And each one of ‘em (guess what?) wants to be… NUMBER ONE SON! --Lindy, the first born, uses his “take charge” strategy. Tracey, the youngest, uses his charm and great sense of humor. Honey is “football crazy” so Gary makes sure his football teams are always champs and sometimes even state champions. Which brings us to – Ricky and Spud. They campaign the hardest. I mean, those boys do some “stump speaking”. And they both boldly announce themselves as NUMBER ONE SON! --Ricky uses his great love for animals, personal attention, and high praise of Honey’s cooking. –And Spud, Michael, uses an almost “I don’t want it” style. While everyone else calls her, Honey; Spud calls her “Big Momma”. But I noticed that Spud made sure his house AND his houseboat are BOTH next door to Honey’s. But, to be honest, I think she’s closest to her daughters in law. --Because, together, they had to figure out how to handle all those Rankins. And she’ll want to know about the grandkids and great grandkids. And, by the way, thank you for sending June, Honey and J.C’s friend and caregiver. She’s what you’d call a Godsend.

Honestly, God, if you should ask me whom I admired most here on earth, it would be Honey. –And not JUST because she took the first five dollars she earned and bought me a puppy either. And that sweet puppy had more lives than a cat. Honey’s truly the best person, all around, that I have ever known. Don’t get me wrong. She’s not perfect. Close to it, but not perfect. For one thing, she is NOT going to like it if you don’t have cigarettes up there. Maybe you can stop her. We couldn’t. And. And I guess that’s about it on the negative side.

She lived by what you said about “loving thy neighbor”. And she was tolerant and accepting of all peoples and all religions here on earth… just as long as they were good people and practiced what they preached. I know that you know all this stuff already, --you with your eye on the sparrow. But it helps me to write it down and to say it out loud. I like to cover all the bases. Double check. It’s a habit.

So, here we are. Today is the day I didn’t want to come. But it’s here and we have to deal with it. We didn’t want you to take her just yet. Selfish on our part really… We will take comfort knowing she’s fine and happy up there with you… except, maybe, for that cigarette thing. We must celebrate the time we did have with her. We thank you for that. Justine Maggart “Honey” Rankin greatly enhanced our lives. Thank you.

NOW, WHILE I HAVE YOUR EAR---- Yes, Honey’s gonna be fine up there with YOU. But, I guess you know, we’re in all sorts of messes down here. We’ve got global warming. Melting ice caps. Dangerous garbage. We’re going to run out of good water. Bacteria is evolving faster than we can stop it. And, frankly, lordy, lordy, lordy, LORD… some of your representatives here on earth shouldn’t be in that line of work. And another perfectly good religion has been misinterpreted and has spawned suicide bombers among their youths, with the idea that they will come to live throughout eternity with you and dozens of virgins. Some of our well-heeled business leaders are greedy crooks. We’ve got quite a few bad apples in our barrel. We’ve definitely got to FIX our wagon before all the wheels come off. HELP! Some say it looks like End of Days. I don’t think so but HELP! We need some good honest leaders and we need to calm down the fanatics. HELP! We have billions of good people who want to live right. But HELP!

Which brings us back to Honey. Honey is a liberal democrat by nature so she LIKES to help. From up there, she would be wise council for you, especially for arbitration and “doing the right thing” in general, with the warring factions down here. She has always been fair and understanding to all parties. That’s how she got started in business. Two men who didn’t trust each other hired her to keep the books and to keep her eye on the both of them. They were pretty good fellows. They just didn’t trust each other. In the bargain, she got to own one of the trucks in their fleet of trucks. I drove that truck I didn’t wreck it but once… coming down that six-mile mountain near Dayton Tennessee. And thank you Lord for saving my butt that day. ---If you should ever need any roads built up there, or skating rinks, beauty parlors, or houseboats; she’s a very capable person. –And for entertainment; she sings and dances (she’s a champion square dancer) and she’s a barrel of fun to boot. You ARE in for a treat. And, lord knows, you could probably use one with all that you have to oversee. As a matter of fact, she could design a very nice houseboat for yourself. No charge.

Well, thanks for listening. Keep watching us! I hope we make it down here. And I am sure that “love thy neighbor” is a step in the right direction. AND rational thinking might be put to good use as well. Plus, of course, always, a little help from you. And help us to recognize your help when we see it.

Honey liked that story about the preacher and the flood… when there was a big flood and the preacher’s church was about to get covered by the rising waters… The preacher decided to show his faith and stay with the church. As the waters rose he said that he KNEW that you would save him. The waters kept rising and the preacher kept climbing… higher up and onto the roof. A fellow comes by in a boat and calls to the preacher to climb on board. But the preacher said, “No thanks. I have faith in the Lord. The Lord will save me.” So the man paddled off looking for others who might be stranded. –The waters kept rising and finally the preacher was holding on to the steeple… STILL sure of his faith! But the swift rising waters swept the preacher off and as he was about to go under he called out to you, “Why did you forsake me Lord?” And you called back, “What are you talking about? I sent a man in a boat!”

I know that Noah did well by you before, but if you should need another… Well, Honey could definitely design such a craft for you. Honey wasn’t perfect, as I said before, she couldn’t walk on water, -- but close.

By the way, I, myself, hope to join everyone up there sometime. But not too soon, if you don’t mind. –I won’t require a boat. I’ll sleep anywhere. But pretty close to Honey, if possible. That’s where all the fun will be. By the way, you’ll be getting lots of such requests. It’s going to be a popular neighborhood.

Respectfully Yours,

Buddy Maggart