People Who Influenced Me - Rosa Green Foil

 

My grandmother, Rosa Green Foil, was a great influence in my life. In many ways, she inspired me to become a Christian. She and my grandfather raised their children in First Baptist Church in Bogalusa, Louisiana. She had been raised herself in Enon Baptist Church. The Green family was large and full of heritage! Heritage I longed for. I saw in their lives what people call “salt of the earth” and “good people.” Their lives seemed connected, clean and peaceful in comparison to my lonely life. As they say “there’s more to the story.”

Although she was sometimes judgmental and religious, it was because of her insistence and the strong Baptist background in her family, that I was sent to a Sunday School as a child even though my parents did not go. I really did fall in love with Jesus there.  I may not have understood much, but I believed and I longed for him.

I loved my grandmother’s intelligence, her smile and her giggles. She was a story teller, and I got my love of family and heritage from her. I save little clippings and keepsakes like she did. Her handwritten family history was the inspiration to do my own. Like the face on the creamy pink cameo that had been her engagement gift, she was the face of heritage to me – and that heritage was Christian. I am very grateful.