another saint...

 Today we celebrated All Saints Sunday at First Pres. It was a lovely service with candles lit and names read, to remember the saints who had died this past year and also those we chose to remember from the past.  Their names were all printed in the bulletin.  We sang "For All the Saints" and "Blest Be the Tie that Binds" and it was all quite moving.  It naturally got me thinking of all of the saints in my life and this evening I want to honor my mother who was a truly good person.  From an early age she had wanted to be a nurse but her mother, a pastor's wife, didn't think that was an appropriate job for a well brought up young lady (whatever that means) and insisted that she become a teacher.  So my mother became a teacher and worked at that career for several years.  During the summers having lots of summer jobs and travel adventures that I loved to hear about.  But after her mother died, when Mom was 33, she started working toward her dream. She was accepted for nurses training at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.  I have no doubt that she would have been a marvelous nurse, but during that year she met and fell in love with my father, an Army sergeant, and they got married.  Sadly, that was the end of her nursing dreams, because in 1943 you couldn't be married and be a nurse.  Fast forward twelve years and Mom was teaching third and fourth grades full time at our little Lutheran elementary school.  Although she never wanted to be a teacher, she was a wonderful one.  I asked her once, while I was at Ball State, studying to be a teacher myself, what her secret was to being a good teacher.  Her answer "You must find something to love about every child."  She must have succeeded because for years, whenever I have been back in my hometown, someone will say "Your mom was my favorite teacher." or "I loved your mom."  She died much too young, at 56, but she will always be remembered with great love and admiration.