EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2021 I began a new venture writing a newspaper column titled "Finding Faith" for the Forum Communications Co. network of newspapers and websites. I was asked to contribute to the company's ongoing conversation about faith, lending a Lutheran and fairly ecumenical approach to the discussion. The column was published in several of the company's papers and websites, including The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. This column originally appeared as a "Finding Faith" column on Sept. 1, 2023.
By The Rev. Devlyn Brooks
Early this week, our mom left us to reunite with her two sons who are in heaven, our oldest brother whom we lost to cancer three years ago, and her first infant son whom she last held some 70 years ago.
Add in our brother-in-law who also passed away a few years ago, her parents and her beloved dog “Chewie,” and I can’t even imagine the divine reunion party they all are having! I’m so envious!
It’s certainly not easy to let mom go, but given the recent difficulties brought on by cancer, and the fact that mom, an ardently faithful woman, has awaited this blessed moment all her life, I am comforted.
Mom will not have her name etched in granite on some building, or be written about in the history books. But I can assure you that she has left her impact in ways that cannot be measured.
She was the matriarch of a family that includes nine children and 70 grandkids and counting. But, even more important than that, mom was known far and wide for her kind and loving spirit.
For a simple woman, who was a small town cafe waitress all of her life, she left an indelible imprint on many far greater than what makes sense. And she did it simply with love: the love shown to her family and the unselfish love she had for every person she met.
A lot of us talk a good game when it comes to loving our neighbor, but Gma Lois was the embodiment of Christ’s love. You see, for mom, she never met anyone who wasn’t family. Little ones were magnetically drawn to this tiny, adorable, white-haired living saint, and the old saw in mom a kindred spirit, someone who’d seen the tougher side of what life had to offer but hadn’t become jaded by it.
From her early days as a waitress, to her days as a leader for Campfire Girls and Boys Scouts, to her days late in life as a foster grandma in elementary schools, mom made each and every person she encountered feel like they were the single-most special person in the world. She emanated the Holy Spirit, helping each person to truly feel they were a beloved child of God.
I am biased, of course. Who wouldn’t write such things about their mother? But just ask anyone who had an encounter with Gma Lois, and they’ll tell you: We all lost a heavenly light this week when she passed into the heavenly kingdom.
Thank you mom for instilling in us your two core principles: faith and family. You did so by loving example, leaving this world a better place one individual at a time.
Rest in peace, mom. May God help us follow in your footsteps. … Amen.
Devlyn Brooks is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and serves Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He also works for Forum Communications Co. He can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com for comments and story ideas.