Thanking God for such a wonderful friend, neighbor, and bright light that shined into our lives.

Good Monday morning, it is the first day of March, 2010, and we have one of those slow soaking rain mornings going on here. We received a note on Saturday that our dear friend Ruth had passed on to her reward on February 19, at age 91. Ruth and her husband Ellis had been our across the driveway neighbors for so many years. They were a retired couple who more or less adopted us into their family back when we moved into the house we currently live in, in the summer of 1984. Ellis suffered from long term leukemia and he died in the early 1990's. He was a genuinely funny man and we knew we had been blessed to have been his neighbor. After Ellis passed on Ruth carried on with vigor and her trademarked stubbornness. She was a woman of great character as well as being a very unique character herself. Laughter. Laughter was Ruth's calling card. I can hear her now and I am so very thankful to have shared so many laughs with her.

She and my wife and I made one of those tour trips to Scotland back in 1993. We had a blast. She was a very private person but at the same time a very people oriented person. Her only son retired from his job here in our area and moved out to the hill country. Ruth wanted to stay here but he did not want to be that far away from her so they finally persuaded her to go with them. She helped design the huge house they built and she had her own quarters but we knew and I think she knew that two cooks in the kitchen was probably not going to get the job done. After 15 years of having her there every day she hugged us goodbye and we cried. Talk about being blessed to have such wonderful people right at your doorstep! Wow! The living arrangement didn't work out just as we predicted and Ruth found her a condo in town and moved there. We went to visit her and laughed and laughed and laughed some more.

During our visit she shared with us how that she for the first time in her life had been a part of a verse by verse study of the Bible. Here she was in her mid-eighties acting giddy over the truths she was learning. She had been in a formal Church all her life but had never known the riches of God's Word unfolded as these ladies studied together. We continued to call and write and exchange Christmas greetings. This past Thanksgiving she developed a problem that turned out to be cancer and we spoke to her in December. She was uncertain about her prognosis but very certain about her soon home going. I could sit here and share dozens of funny stories about our dear Ruth because even in our last call it was remembering old times, and, you guessed it, more laughing. She had a good life. According to her son's note, she was in good spirits until the very end, and he said she had been comforted by the closeness she felt to people like ourselves. Folks, don't take for granted the handfuls on purpose that God brings into your life. She is laughing now with her Savior and we do thank God for the privilege of her being a part of our lives and the lives of our children, and so many other lives that she touched. May God bless her memory and may we learn to be good neighbors to all we meet! Amen. ......More later.