Thursday, October 15, 2015

Mom Alice Warner

On this day, October15, 113 years ago Albert and Clara Myers of Waddams Grove, Illinois welcomed a new daughter, Alice, into their family. They had three older living sons and had also lost two children to diphtheria several years before. Alice was a bonus baby, born late in their marriage, but a welcome joy to their lives. 

The Old Myers Farmhouse (now gone)
 
Brother Clark and Alice with their father, Albert, 1903 or 1904
Alice grew up there on the farm and then attended Bethany Hospital in Chicago for Nurse's training where she met Arthur Warner, an Indiana Quaker farm boy turned preacher attending Bethany Seminary. They met in Greek class. : )

They married and spent a lifetime together raising a family and serving the Lord and His church via the Church of the Brethren. Together they served in North Dakota, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Virginia and Maryland. What an extraordinary life journey they had. 
 
Pop & Mom, Ralph, Barbara and my birth mother, Janice; Lynchburg,VA sometime in the mid-late 40's

I entered their lives as their first grandchild in 1953 and then became their adopted daughter in 1963. Mom always said it was like having a second life...and I suppose it was--as, while their peers were retiring and doing "age appropriate" things, they filled their 60's and 70's with carting carloads of girls to high school football games, chaperoning dances, camping, leading 4-H Clubs, having a house and yard full of teenagers, projects scattered everywhere and all the rest that goes with having a teenager in your household. And they did it with such grace and love and enthusiasm. Amazing!


At age 60, Floyd, VA a year before they adopted me.
Nurse Alice, 1968; Selma, VA
1969-Mom in the kitchen; She always wore an apron!
1970 in the best chair EVER...red leather rocker; Selma, VA

Mom at my wedding, February 15, 1975
Mom on her 90th Birthday; October 15, 2002; Thurmont, MD
So today, on her birthday, I raise a glass of Dr. Pepper (mom's favorite) in honor of a woman who had an inner strength beyond my comprehension and who loved her family unconditionally...every single crazy one of us--no exceptions! And all deeply rooted in her love for God which started back there in 1902 on the Myers Farm when the family thanked the Lord for her arrival.

All the birthdays of my life and on the occasion of many other friends and family, Mom recited this little poem:

Many happy returns on the day of thy birth-
May sunshine and gladness be given;
And may the dear Father prepare thee on earth
For a beautiful birthday in heaven.

Happy Birthday, Mom! Gone from this life and into eternity and the presence of her Savior. Beloved. Never forgotten.

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