I grew up in a tiny little town of 60 people about 2 1/2 hours West of Minneapolis. Shortly after moving there as a young child, I met an old woman named Mary, who lived across the street from us. She lived in a big old house, which I soon learned had once been the Catholic Church in town before the new church was built. The house had no indoor plumbing, so no running water, no bathroom, only a small kitchen sink that drained into a large bucket underneath. The only source of heat in the large house was a pot belly stove in the middle of the house that burned big chunks of coal, and sort of heated the entire home. The coal was stored in a “coal shed” a distance from the house. Mary had no bathroom, just an outhouse, also a distance from the house for obvious reasons. And yes, often there was a Sears catalog in the outhouse for when times were tough and there was no toilet tissue available to her.

Mary and I became friends immediately and I would visit her every day. I soon began to go over to her house in the mornings before school to help her. She would be waiting for me with a hot cup of coffee. I would bring her a bucket of coal from the coal shed and a bucket of fresh water from the pump outside of her neighbors’ house next door, then carry out her bucket from under the sink and dump it in her garden area. After school I would pick up her mail at the post office and start the chores all over again. She would always have a cup of hot green tea waiting for me to warm me after school. I loved her like a grandmother, and she loved me like a grandchild. She literally had no amenities, yet she never complained. She could often be heard singing old hymns, reading her Bible faithfully and she always thanked God for the blessings that she had been given.

At the time I met Mary I learned that she had 16 living children. All were grown, had families of their own, and lived in various cities and states. They would often come home to visit on weekends, but most of the time Mary was on her own. When Mary’s kids and grandkids would come to visit on week-ends, they appreciated me and treated me like family. In fact, after I graduated from High School, I moved to Minneapolis and was invited to live with one of her granddaughter’s family until I was able to afford a place of my own.

Mary needed me, and I needed her as well. It was an unusual friendship between a little girl and an old woman that lasted until the day Mary died in the late 1970’s. Shortly before Mary died, I went home for the week-end and brought my husband (then fiancé) to meet Mary. She seemed very weak and frail. We had a wonderful visit. It wasn’t too long after our visit that Mary died. I felt like Mary knew after that visit that I was going to be ok, and she was at peace and ready to go home to her Lord and Savior.

During these difficult times we are facing as a nation and as a world, it’s easy for me to become depressed and long for life as it used to be, when we had the freedom to come and go and do whatever we wanted. When we could go to a restaurant to eat dinner with friends or family. When our church would be filled with our people. When we didn’t have to worry about a dangerous and often fatal disease called Covid-19. Then I think of the many blessings I have in my life and about my dear friend, Mary, and how little she had, and yet she never complained, but gave thanks to God for all of the blessings in her life. It helps me put things in perspective and I am forever thankful for this beautiful friendship I shared with Mary for so many years.

Read the words below from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 which are pretty meaningful right now as we struggle with this Pandemic. These words were also the lyrics to a song titled Turn! Turn! Turn! written by Pete Seeger and recorded by the folk rock band, The Byrds in 1965. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart that same year.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: ²a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; ³a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; ⁴a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ⁵a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ⁶a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; ⁷a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ⁸a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.