My grandmother was a wonderful lady. She was very petite and looked much younger than her ninety years.

When my grandfather died, she was all alone in her home. She had outlived two of her four children and did not wish to live with my mother or her other child. She moved into a nursing center and made new friends.

When her birthday came around, I sent my grandmother a dozen red roses. I could not be at her birthday party because my daughter was recuperating from a tonsillectomy. The nursing center was also a few hours away from my home, so I decided that it would be all right if I did not go to see my grandmother that day. I would see her again soon.

That is what I thought -- until I received a phone call from my Mom that grandmother was dying. Nothing could be done to save her. She had related to my Mom and the doctors that she was ready to go to Heaven.

I did not want my grandmother to die. I prayed that she would live. It was a selfish prayer, but one I wanted to pray!

Meanwhile, my grandmother was having a difficult time letting go. She told my Mom in a whisper, "Something is keeping me here, or someone. I think it is Martha's prayers!"

My Mom phoned me and told me I needed to let my grandmother go.

"My prayer is that powerful, Mom?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "That is what your grandmother believes."

I released my grandmother and in less than two hours she was with God. This is not something magical, I think, but supernatural.

Mom told me afterward that my grandmother's room was silent before she went. Grandmother began looking and smiling at the corner of her room, a little toward the ceiling. Unable to speak, she looked over at my Mom and motioned with her weakened hand in the direction where she had been smiling.

Mom recalled that it was as though my grandmother was waiting for someone to "come and get her" and, soon thereafter, gestured as if to say, "I am going now."

Mom said it was similar to when she'd watch me at the school bus stop when I was a young teen. She could not see the bus approaching, but I would wave, nod my head and give a gesture when I saw that the bus was arriving. That's when she would know, Okay, the bus is coming -- everything is all right.

That is the message my grandmother motioned to my Mom. As if to say, "Jesus is coming, the angels are coming, I am going now and it is okay -- everything is okay." And then she was gone.

Mom said the presence of God was all around and that the whole room glowed. "I know I was not seeing things -- it was real!" she told me, adding, "The praying power of a grandmother who knows God in a most intimate way is truly a blessing."

The last thing my Mom said to me about that day was, "Your grandmother is at peace now."

That day I released my grandmother from this earth. And I gained in understanding that God hears -- and heeds -- our heartfelt prayers.

Martha S.

Cornelia, GA