CHINA GROVE – Lillie Mae Swink, of China Grove, went to be with Jesus Monday, Dec. 11, 2006. Services were held for our Mother Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006, at Lyerly Funeral Home in Salisbury officiated by her pastor, the Rev. Bill Bauguess, at 1 p.m., followed with a service at West Lawn Memorial Park in China Grove.

We appreciate Rev. Bauguess and will keep his kind words about Mom and Jesus always in our hearts. He gave the family much comfort and reminded us of the Heavenly home and to believe.

Lillie was the daughter of Eva Canup and Jess Alexander and the sister of Jeff Alexander Jr., who all preceded her into Heaven’s gates. She was the wife of the late Elmer Elijah Swink, who went to be with the Lord in 1976.

She was the loving and so very loved mother of 11 children. Two have gone before her, Jack and Jimmy Hooks, and nine still abide here: Gary (Bill), Steve, Woodrow (Doc), Vernon Dale (Butch) and Kyle Hooks and daughters Mary Ann Rodriguiss, Lana Sue Elliott, Nancy Swink Burgess and Gladys Culp. Also surviving are many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Lillie Mae loved her time with family and spent hours playing the guitar and singing older hymns and songs as The Family Bible and Fraulien. She said prayers with us at night and woke us with a smile and a pleasant Rise and Shine every morning.

She was an exceptional homemaker who never met a stranger and was an extraordinary cook , always ready to offer a meal to any visitor.

She stood her ground for her children and her belief in God and His word. She tried her best to show us the way and did what she could with what she had.

A very important lesson we were taught is to share, share our meals, our clothes, our time and our home; and if you had a candy bar, remember this, “If you don’t have enough to give everyone some, then keep it in your pocket!!!!” Quote Lillie Mae Swink.

Rev. Bill Bauguess was her preacher and he and his wife Mae provided her with a Bible that she read and kept close by and gave her transportation to and from church and comforted her through many trying times. We thank their family and we thank God for them.

Many thanks to her neighbors, Edna Mae and Fred Stamper on Highway 152, and their children for all the help and kind things they have done for Mom through all these years. Their daughter Pat especially helped with her lawn care. And thank you Sylvia Vernon for the beautiful music you played.

And to all who were kind to our mom and helped her through her life here, we all say thank you.

Please join our family in knowing that Mom has said hello to Jesus. Welcome home, Lillie Mae. “Well done, my good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joys of thy Lord.”