Family is very important to me and I thank God for the love of my family. I was deeply touched and would like to share the following tribute that my daughter did for my mother:
Good morning everybody! I thank God for the opportunity to speak on behalf of my diva! I am the granddaughter of this beautiful woman that we are celebrating today and I am Jackie’s daughter (Berta’s baby girl!). “My Sweet Girl” is what Grandma Berta would call me.
My grandmother was definitely one of a kind and I grasped her wisdom at a young age. I can hear her now, “a woman that doesn’t make her bed in the morning is just sorry” and she would often say, “you gotta do better than that.” I could never escape the “TALK” as she called it… where she would say, “now, don’t ever run behind no man you hear what I say and don’t be around here acting like you ‘bad off’ for one either.” And she would always say, “don’t mess up and finish school.”
Growing up, my brother and I would be happy to see Grandma come visit – especially on day one, but by day two we both were “ducking and hiding”- she had us dusting off the ceiling fans, raking the yard, sweeping the driveway, scrubbing the bathroom tiles with my old toothbrush, polishing furniture – you name it, she had us doing it! She put us to work on her vacation and by the time she left our house, it was spotless and ready to be put up for sale!
Grandma Berta could sing and she could pray. I would walk in her
room sometimes and I would hear 
her praying for our family. And talk about a good cook – she was the best! And when I would go to visit grandma back in the day, I just knew I was going to wake up to some grits, bacon, sausage, eggs, and good ole ‘butter-melting homemade biscuits – Uuummm good – I can taste it now!
She made me laugh and on several occasions she had selective hearing. I remember one day she asked me to give her a manicure and she kept asking me when I was going to do it. I said, “Grandma I’m going to do it and under my breath I said, “Grandma you being pesky” and she said, “no I ain’t being pesky neither.” I couldn’t help but laugh.
In closing, I would like to say that my grandma was the strongest woman I’ve ever met and the most honest-sometimes too honest…she was going to tell you the truth and tell you to your face – whether you liked it or not. My grandma was a ball of joy and as she became quiet in her later years, she would still show that beautiful, radiant smile with those pretty high cheek bones. I cherish all the good times we had together and I am so blessed that God gave me the opportunity to know her. She will be missed dearly, but never forgotten. As the saying goes, “don’t count the days – let the days count.”