There is a span of fifteen years in our age but it has never made a difference in our relationship. In the very first years of marriage we didn’t do much that didn’t also involve our children. But when we did need a baby sitter on those rare occasions, she was always willing to keep our two little ‘tow headed boys’.
We had so much fun and so many laughs over the years (and we still do). The week end visits in each other’s homes when we still had that ‘special brother’ are a treasured memory I have now. My boys loved her and she was their very favorite aunt.
Of all the people I know and have met, I believe she is the most courageous of all. With a lot of people all it takes is one heart breaking loss in life to make them withdrawn or bitter. This precious lady has had four heart breaking losses in her life and through all four she has held fast to her faith and her love in God.
She lost a husband who loved her very much when she was only forty eight years old. What a devastating blow that was to her! Our oldest son loved his Uncle Harry Lee so much that when I mentioned one day that his Aunt Pearline might want to remarry someday for companionship he let me know in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want his Aunt Pearline marrying anyone else!! And through all the thirty two years since then, she has said the Lord didn’t make another Harry Lee.
Only a few short months after losing her husband, she lost her Mother who lived with her.
Nine years later, she lost her oldest son through a brutal murder. This son was the manager of a Howard Brothers Store. One night a man hid in the store and when closing time came and everyone left but her son, the man shot him.
Ten years later after the tragedy of losing her son, she lost a grandson in a car accident. You would begin to wonder just how much a human heart can stand without being shattered to pieces.
She has withstood all these tragedies in her life with God’s help. And now in her older years with arthritis in her knees so bad she can hardly walk, you can ask her, "How are you feeling?" She will always say, "Oh, I’m doing pretty good." You are not going to hear any complaining from this courageous lady.
She is my sister-in-law and my dear friend. Her faith is strong. When I have needs in my life I ask for her support in prayer and when she is praying, I can feel God’s presence even nearer me.
Today, when we get together, we never catch up with our talking. We talk about old times; the good and the bad. We laugh together and we cry together. We have a love for each other that goes beyond the ‘in-law’ stage. We are not ‘in-laws’. She is the sister I never had.
This page is in honor of Pearline Dawson, the best sister-in-law anyone could ever have. ‘Sis’ we love you.
UPDATE: Our precious Sis went to be with her Lord on February 13, 2012. We will miss her very much because she was much more than a sister-in-law; she was "Our Sis". She is in a much better place now because now the lonliness and sadness she experienced on this earth is over with. Out of the Dawson family she and my husband, Audis Dawson, were the only two left and it makes him very sad to know that now it is only him. We rejoice in the comfort of knowing that she is in Heaven today with her husband, sons and grandson.