Let’s Try This Out
Tags: Bible, Jesus, Christianity, Books, Family

So…hi :)

Most of you have probably never heard of me, and you’ve definitely never heard from me either, but my name is Jamison. I’m a college student from small town, South Dakota. I sing, I create music, I cook, I travel, I read, I write, I study language, I watch Netflix, I paint, and I read my Bible. I feel like I have some pretty cool stuff to share, so we’ll see where this goes from here!

This summer, my best friend and grandmother Bonnie Cohee passed away from stage IV cancer, and it was a lot for me (and my entire family) to go through. I struggled to cope and process it all, and I found the only way to fully digest what had happened was to do what I do best: write.

An oldie but a goodie; Grandma’s in the back with the green sweatshirt on

So I wrote…and wrote…and wrote.

Until I had a book.

It can be bought on Barnes & Noble as “Be Like Bonnie: Life Lessons from my Grandma Cohee,” and it’s one of the things I’m most proud of in my life. Those 159 pages contain every single thing that woman ever taught me, and I’m glad I could get even a small piece of her legacy down on the page because it’s what she deserves.

In the full copy of the book, I’ve organized her lessons into three categories: strength, grace, and faith, all of which I believe to have been her best qualities. The first section is probably my favorite, and I thought I’d share just a small snippet of it here today. But real quick, I think I should probably give you some context.

Grandma’s life was hard. She lost her father to suicide at the age of 30 and had two miscarriages after the birth of her twins. She moved around the country after high school looking for work and struggled with her faith. But hands down the most difficult battle she had to fight in her life was the death of her husband Lon:

“It was what her entire life up until that point had been preparing her for. Every challenge she had faced, every struggle she had ever encountered, had contributed to her strength. They gave her experience, perspective, and practice for Lonnie’s death.

Even though she didn’t know it, every single one of her setbacks was just one more test drive on the road to spiritual healing. Every seemingly accidental pothole was purposefully placed on her path to teach her something she’d need later in life.

And the most beautiful part about it?

It was all orchestrated by God. Every single hiccup she ever faced was designed by Him. Every single plot twist she endured was written by Him. Every single hurdle was set up by Him. He was her coach. She was strong and confident and tough, all because of the love of Jesus Christ. All because of Isaiah 40:31.

At one point in time, she read this verse, and, from that moment on, she never stopped living it. She read that ‘Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.’ And she never did. She never grew weary or faint.

Not with Lon. Not ever. And that was because she was with God, and God was with her. She had Him with her through it all, and she knew she could take on anything that stood in her way if she had the love of Jesus.

Now, I assume that I’m going to use a lot of metaphors throughout this book to describe Bonnie because she was so many things to so many different people, so you’d better get used to my figures of speech.

In this case, Grandma was a phoenix, rising from the ashes. She took the worst situations and could always find something positive to say and do. She took the death of her husband of 37 years and used it as a launching point for a legacy of love. A dynasty of respect and honor and kindness and, of course, strength” (Gross 36–37).