A Southern POV: My Grandmother's Bible

Do you have one? I do. I have several, in fact. Those foxed and dog-eared, leather-covered and hand-smeared Bibles that sustained our families through good times and hard trials. Many are falling apart, loved beyond repair. I received them from both sides of my family, and they hold cherished spots in my house...and my heart.

My grandmothers were both avid Bible readers. My paternal grandmother, Omie, was so entrenched in Scripture that she made it a mission to read through the Bible once every year. King James, of course; she loved the language. It wasn't a doctrinal issue for her--choosing that translation over another--but one of familiarity and love.

The words rolled off her tongue like butter, soothing and sure. Omie could wield Scripture like a sword--or a poultice. She noted in the back of her Bible every time she finished a read-through, and she wore out more than one leather text. She'd place it on her lap, feet together and flat on the floor, like the charm school grad she was, and disappear into God's Word.

This is one of her later Bibles, and you can see how tattered it had become. It wasn't the last one she wore out, but it was the one she noted her second marriage in--she remarried in August 1963 at the age of 71 (she turned 72 later that month)--as well as many of the births and marriages of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

What a treasure that makes this Bible--it's not just a legacy of her faith but one of the love she had for all her family. Her hugs were legendary, and she'd smooch every cheek as if she hadn't seen you in a lifetime. She was practical and poised, but she gave my mother some of the best advice on marriage--and sex--ever.

She may have been a proper lady, but she knew men...and when women, even proper Southern ladies...get together to talk about life and love, practicality won out over proper. There are a few folks who knew her who say I remind them of her (except for that proper part), which I take as a great compliment.

Omie Velma Brothers Pope Burns lived until she was 90, outliving that second husband and most of her peers.

But not her love of God's Word. That was, like the Bible itself, eternal.