Grace Lives On

by John C. Westervelt

My sister Harriette called me before breakfast to tell me that Grace Garten had died at two o’clock this morning. She was ninety-two. I visualize Jesus greeting Grace with congratulations for making such a difference for Him in the lives of so many.

Grace and her sister Alma were school teachers in Oklahoma City. Grace took course work during the summers to prepare for her calling to serve Jesus as a youth director. As I began my second year of high school in 1943, Grace joined Rev. Nuell Crain at Wesley UMC in Oklahoma City. My friends and I became Grace’s first youth group. Our loyalty to Grace has never wavered over these fifty-five years.

Grace and my mother gently formed the mold that would determine whom I would become. I, in turn, influenced the lives of my children and the lives of friends. My grandchildren never met Grace. I would want them to know that Grace played a small part in who they are.

Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar - "I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones."

Beg your pardon bard, but the good that Grace did will live forever.

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