PERSPECTIVE ALWAYS MATTERS ~ LESSONS FROM MY GRANDMA

My grandmother was one of the strongest women of faith I have ever known. Born in 1912, she died after having lived a long life on this earth. While her life was not an easy one, walking by faith in Christ filled her with love, joy, and peace spilling over onto those who loved her most. When I moved back home to Ligonier in 1991, I remember sitting and chatting with Grandma over a cup of tea. I told her that the Scripture in 2 Timothy 1:5 always made me think of her. Paul told Timothy: For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well. I believed with all my heart that God heard the prayers of my grandmother, especially, to bring me to salvation in Christ. So, I asked her to jot down anything she could tell me of her life that gave her such a strong faith. She caught the bug to write because she ended up putting her thoughts into two small books for her family.

When I was eight years old, my Aunt Gloria died. It was Grandma who first told me about heaven. A seed was planted in my heart that would take root many years later. Grandma cultivated her family garden by creating many opportunities to gather those whom she loved the most in order that she might serve her King by serving them. Grandma was heavily involved in her church and never seemed to miss a Sunday worship service, usually returning home to a house filled with family waiting for the Sunday meal. Interviewing many for one of her books, most did not fail to mention their fond memories of Sunday’s spent at Grandma’s home. Grandma and Pappy moved from what we called “the big house” into a mobile home on a piece of property between two of her children, my father and my aunt. On any given Sunday there could be 20 some people crammed into that small trailer with kids happily running throughout participating in a chaotic game of Huckle-Buckle-Beanstalk while their parents played along. Grandma was the epitome of what I think of when I think of the gift of hospitality. Sitting on the porch talking about life in the evenings was also a favorite past-time for all.

Grandma got cancer in her later years. She died in her small living room on a hospital bed with all her family surrounding her. After she died, I remember telling everyone, “Everyone should get to die like that.” I was deeply honored and humbled when asked to write Grandma’s obituary. Here is a portion of it: “Mary Elizabeth Boyd, 94, of Ligonier, was ushered into the presence of her beloved Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Monday, Dec. 11, 2006. She died peacefully at her home, surrounded by her cherished family singing hymns, listening to the reading of Scripture, praying and preaching her final message to each grandchild to "follow Jesus." (Some who couldn’t be there she would even demand an audience with by phone.) Mary, throughout her life, took each opportunity that she had to share her faith, and the example she left was an unspoken sermon of faith, love, and perseverance to all who knew her and loved her. Her passion for the gospel and love for people served her Lord well as a faithful witness and widespread influence touching many during her long life. Mary loved music and sang with Echoes of the Valley. As a lifelong member of the First Church of the Brethren, Mary had occasion to fill in as worship leader for a number of years and was a member of the ladies’ group there. During World War II, she was one of the founders of the Waterford Homefront News, which was a local news publication that carried information of the boys who were serving from the area, while she served back home by taking turn in the observation booth and watched for enemy aircraft. Her legacy to her children, grandchildren, family, friends and community includes two books that she authored sharing valuable historical information of things she remembered during her lifetime.”

As we ponder today’s worldly events surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, I want to look at what the Lord brought a woman of strong faith through in her lifetime. I believe it was in these trying times the faith that endured was forged. The following facts I borrowed from a friend’s Facebook post who borrowed it from another. I have tweaked it to reflect the life Grandma would have known.

Grandma was born in 1912. World War 1 started two years later and ended when she was six years old. Her mother died on February 8, 1918 that same year. (For years, different relatives would pitch in to help raise Grandma and her siblings. They were moved around in different homes, sometimes together, and sometimes split up. The youngest sibling was only 9 months old at the time of their mother’s death.) Later in that same year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hit the planet and ran until she was eight years old. Grandma said she didn’t recall there being anything with which to treat the flu but ice and aspirin.  In the year Grandma would have turned 17, the Great Depression began and lasted for the next four years. Unemployment hit 25%, the World GDP dropped 27%. The country nearly collapsed along with the world’s economy. World War II  began when Grandma was 27 years old. Two years later, the United States was fully pulled into WW II until she was 33. At age 38, the Korean War began. At age 43, the Vietnam War began. At age 50, the Cuban Missile Crisis threatened to end life on the planet as they knew it. When Grandma was 63, the Vietnam War finally ended.

During all these major world events, Grandma’s personal trials and tribulations included losing her mother at a small age, trying to care for her other siblings as the older sister, an abusive step-mother who “was no mother to us,” and a father who became an alcoholic after he remarried “who would also abuse the kids in this state”. When her own children were grown, she would lose a granddaughter born to her only daughter at birth. Later, she would lose her only son-in-law who was killed in the line of duty as a local police officer. She would be there for her daughter and the three small boys who had been left behind. Later, she would lose her husband, numerous brothers and sisters, two other grandchildren, and a great granddaughter who was my daughter.

In her books, Grandma talks about going to school in a two-room schoolhouse with grades 1-4 in one room and grades 5-8 in the other with anywhere between 70-80 pupils in the two rooms. Grandma graduated 8^th grade with the understanding she would not be going to high school as there was no money to buy clothes, and they would have had to walk to Ligonier which was a little over 4 miles. Instead, she got her first job at the age of 14 carpooling with a man who worked in the general vicinity of her place of employment. She made $5 a week cooking, cleaning and taking care of the sickly woman of the home and her two small boys.

Grandma went from job to job caring mostly for women with babies. She had few articles of clothing, usually hand-me-downs from other relatives. The closest store was four miles away. She said, “We never had boots, just rubbers to wear over our shoes. Our feet often got wet, and we only had one pair of black stockings, and we would dry them and put them back on until they wore out. We had to wear long underwear in the winter and were never allowed to take them off till May the 1^st. We had two pair, then we would take them off and go in our bare feet, but never before the first of May, no matter how warm it was.” (To this day, I call May 1^st ‘Bare Feet Day’. I did not know why that was.)  She continued, “We would roll the underwear up if it got too warm. Walking to town was not usual unless it was absolutely necessary. I can remember one time when I was 12 years old, I had to walk my brother, Bill – 6 years old – who had a toothache to the dentist.”

Grandma went to church and Sunday school every Sunday morning and evening with her grandmother. She also went on Wednesday evening to prayer meeting and was proud of the fact that in 1994 she was still attending the same church (built in 1888) in which she grew up. She talks about how they baptized “in the pond above their home in the field that the creek flowed into” and that if someone wanted to be baptized in the winter, they would have to cut the ice in order to do so.

There are so many stories I could tell. One, later in life, always makes me laugh. After every Bible study I taught in my home, the girls and I would usually go somewhere for lunch to continue our time of fellowship. One Friday, we decided to take a pizza to Grandma’s house for lunch. It was her birthday. Grandma loved pizza—I guess she passed that love down to me as well! Grandma had asked about that week’s Bible study. I can’t remember the passage we were studying, but I knew we had been talking about false teachers. Seated around Grandma’s table we were telling her of a local pastor who claimed he was an apostle. With her head down focusing on her pizza, never skipping a beat or lifting her head, she dogmatically stated, “Well, he’s not.” I laughed out loud. Wisdom spoke. Had I never taken the hour beforehand to teach the girls what I had prepared, this simple statement made a more lasting impact on the girls who heard her words.

Grandma probably experienced more hardships in her life than any person I know personally. Yet, her life was filled with hope and faith. How can that be? How can we gain that same testimony for our own? Grandma taught me to consider Jesus, to fix my eyes always on Him. Hebrews 12:1-3—Therefore, since was have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. And, by exulting in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-5—Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Complain about my life today? Yeah…I don’t think so.