February 19, 2006

• In Remembrance of Erma

  My friend Erma passed away this morning. Erma had no friends in California, except me, so there will be no funeral or obituary of her life in the local newspaper. It breaks my heart to think of a soul leaving this earth in such a way so I decided to honor her life in the only way I could think of  … by sharing Erma with you.

  
  

  This is in remembrance of my dear friend, Erma!

  
  

  I first met Erma about 5 or 6 years ago. I had believed  the Lord was nudging me to reach out to the senior citizen’s mobile home park in our old neighborhood. Our church at that time had a food program for the elderly so my hope was to use it as a tool to minister Christ. It seemed that this mobile home park was a place where people would go and eventually die. There had been 9 deaths in the previous year before I met Erma. I wondered how many knew the Lord.  

  
  

  I still remember the day I met Erma. It was a cold and rainy day sometime not too long after Christmas. I had 5 names that the complex manager had given me of tenants who were very poor and could use some help with food. The first three doors I knocked on had no answer. The fourth trailer I came to was Erma’s.

  
  

  I was taken back when Erma first opened the door. Her hair was tangled and looked like it hadn’t been combed. Her clothes needed a washing. As she walked over to her chair I began to see why she was in such disarray. She could barely walk. She had very little strength so the simplest of duties were difficult. Her hands were crippled from arthritis and she could barely use one at all. But, bless her heart, even though she didn’t know me she opened up her home. That was the beginning of my friendship with Erma.

  
  

  The best I could figure out Erma was around 86 years old this year. She had been adopted and was an only child. She worked for more than 20 years at a bus station back East and eventually retired. She had one son and had been married twice. Her second husband was a Baptist minister. They were married 5 years when he died of cancer. I believe they lived in Arizona at the time. Erma then moved to California. She didn’t know a soul when she moved here.

  
  

  Erma had been an artist and had many of her pictures hanging on her living room wall. One of the pictures was of a gray haired gentleman with a beard. I asked her who the man was in the picture and she said it was Moses.

  
  

  Erma’s most loved possession was her cat, Sweetie Pie. A housekeeper sent from the county to help Erma had brought her as a gift. Erma loved that cat and was so worried about what would happen to her when she was put in a convalescent home. God was good and I was able to find a wonderful Christian woman to adopt Sweetie Pie.

  
  

  Erma confessed Christ as her Savior. We had many talks about the Lord throughout the years I knew Erma. She enjoyed watching religious programs on TV. She was moved to a convalescent home a few years ago because of health reasons. When I’d visit she always enjoyed having me read the Bible to her and pray.

  
  

  Here is a picture of Erma last year in her room at the convalescent home.

  
  

  

  
  

   I  wanted to express the love I had for Erma in Christ Jesus and my thanks to Him for allowing me to minister to her. I look forward to seeing Erma again someday in Heaven.

  • 6:44 pm
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