“Like Sands Through The Hourglass…”

Before I was old enough to go to school, I spent every weekday with my Aunt Ruby while mom and dad were at work, and many of my most cherished childhood memories were created while under the care of this special lady.

Ruby Hamm was a person who never had a harsh word to say about anybody, and although she had to endure more than her fair share of hardships and worry, she always did her very best to make sure that I never saw her without a smile on her face. In all my life, I have never met a more generous and loving human being.

Even after all these years I can still smell the aroma of that wonderful pot of beans that was always cooking on her “wood cook stove”. Home-cooked “brown beans” were her specialty, and man were they ever good! Sometimes it would be “Pintos”, other times ‘Octobers”, but there was always a big pot of them sitting on her stove simmering away, just waiting for this little boy to get hungry. To this day, I still love a big ‘ole plate of October beans, but I have yet to find some that even come close to the amazing taste of Aunt Ruby’s.

I can also remember sitting on the floor of her living room, busily hauling “stuff” around with the metal yellow dump truck or putting out a “fire” with the shiny red fire engine that she couldn’t really afford, but bought for me anyway just because I asked. And all the while, Ruby would be working at something or sitting in her chair hulling a big pile of beans for the next day’s “mess” while her old “black-and-white” TV filled the room with the sights and sounds of her “stories”. Aunt Ruby absolutely loved watching soap operas, and she did so from the time they first came on in mid-morning until they went off  later that afternoon.

Looking back on it, I don’t think she was envious of the privileged lifestyles enjoyed by the characters on those shows. I believe that she truly cared for them just as she did for her “real-life” friends and family, constantly worrying right along with them about their seemingly endless trials and tribulations. She had her favorite soaps of course, and she was always ready and waiting to change the channel when it came time to tune the next one in. But her absolute favorite soap of all was “Days of our Lives”. Let me tell you, if I live to be 100 I’ll never forget hearing Macdonald Carey’s soothing voice intoning “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”

On a cool April morning 33 years ago, the sands in Aunt Ruby’s hourglass ran out. The Lord called her home much sooner than any of us expected, and everyone who loved her…no, make that everyone who knew her, was shocked and deeply saddened by her loss. Our world had lost a true angel, a gentle and loving lady who was kind and good to everyone she ever met. But our loss was Heaven’s gain, and I know I’ll be seeing her again some day in a land where her hourglass will forever be full.