
Like many of us in the room, I spent the better part of thirty years seeing Grandma at every holiday we can spare. Learning card games and the art of the crossword puzzle. Eagerly anticipating the annual Eicher Christmas party, where everyone gathered for a great time. And after taking time to read memories written by all her children, I want to spend a few minutes remembering her with you today.
Let’s start with prayer…Pray with me, won’t you?
Father
Thank you for the gift you gave us in Helen Eicher
Help us to grieve her absence with us, to celebrate her life, and to emulate her example.
Send your comfort upon each person here today.
As we remember her as a wife, mother, grandmother, friend and Jesus-follower.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Grandma’s absence with us is all magnified by the fact that she was gifted as someone who loved everyone well—so well that she always had people gathered at her home. In fact, being here together is a good reminder of all the gatherings that took place because of how people loved her company. It’s as if all the wonderful parties she hosted at her home have been joined together to celebrate her! If we only had a deck of cards, a pack of White Castles, and the famed Eicher potato dish, this party would be truly complete! (jk)
Grandma truly did know how to love people well. (pause)
She was a great host—planning parties in a way that covered all the details, but left plenty of room for fun and conversation.
She was an expert card player—spoons, hand and foot, or rummy. You had to put your game face on if you were playing with her.
She was a great gift giver—she had a talent for remembering the things that meant the most to each person, and showing them love in the most meaningful way.
She always carried a joyful spirit around with her, and her laugh could light up a room. Her laugh was unforgettable.
And her words were always powerfully spoken. She was a great encourager and she had a tact in her approach to hard conversations that always showed he loved the person, even if she hated their behavior.
Grandma’s love and joy came from her unshakable faith.
Those that knew her well, knew that she read her Bible daily and knew that book better than anything else on this earth. And her diligence to consistently worship and learn every week at church rooted that love even deeper in her life.
A faith that created a safe, strong household that her children grew up in, and loved returning to long after launching into their own adult lives and a home that supported her husband as he built a business from the garage to the manufacturing floor.
A faith that gave her strength and peace that I cannot quite grasp to care for Kelly, her youngest, disabled daughter and to endure her untimely passing.
A faith that kept her attitude kind and joyful even when her mind could not remember the past, even when her body had to endure painful treatment over the course of twelve years.
A faith that even got her arrested and jailed once, for protesting to protect the lives of the unborn.
Grandma’s faith filled her with love, and compelled her to love people really well: as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a friend.
It’s because of her love that she touched so many people—you and me included. It’s because of that love that we grieve her. We don’t want to be without her company, we long for her words of encouragement, and we feel her absence.
As I close my time of sharing, I hope the things I have shared have brought back your own memories with her, and that you will take time later to share those with each other, as well as to write them down.
But in the midst of your grief, let me remind you that Helen is forever free from sadness and sickness. Because the faith she had in Jesus Christ, when her eyes closed in this life, they opened in the presence of her Savior. Jesus has not only welcomed her into heaven, and given her a body and a mind that is strong, whole, and free from pain or disease.
And I say all of that, so that I can say this. Helen was a gift to us—and we should be sad that she’s gone. At the same time, Helen is now whole and in heaven and those of us who share that faith with her to look forward to a joyful reunion with her one day. And if there’s a kitchen or shopping mall in heaven, I have a feeling she’ll have a gift, a cake, and a deck of cards awaiting our arrival. The final pages of the Bible promise us that because of our faith, we will see:
Revelation 21:3-4
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth…(where) ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
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