Brenda’s story – 10 July 2008
“I’ve never known a time when I didn’t know Jesus” Brenda starts. “I was a mission girl in the Methodist Church, collecting a penny here twopence there”. She produces a certificate showing her collecting £3 2/11 in 1941.
One of the first experiences that impacted Brenda faith was the communion service. “I was hit right here, when we say we do not presume to come to this your table merciful Lord” and “we are not worthy to gather the crumbs”, the prayer of preparation. “I was heartbroken because I wasn’t worthy. I was really challenged, and I think it was something very great happening within me”.
Brenda went into nursing “My attendance at church stopped virtually when I started nursing. You had to work every other Sunday, and the shift pattern didn’t leave much time. It became difficult to maintain the continuity with other Christians.”
While I was doing my training I did go back to church once and there was a gentleman speaking, and his face was radiant. I’ve read in books about people with radiant faces, and I always think of his. We sang “Take my life and let it be”. He stopped after we’d sung it, and asked if anybody wanted to sing it again to re-dedicate their lives. Well I’d been doing my nursing and lost touch. I stood up to sing and my sister said “Sit down our Brenda, everybody’s looking at you.” But I didn’t care, I had tears streaming down my face.”
Brenda then went on to do midwifery and district nursing. “I don’t think there is any job more satisfying than delivering a baby into a home where it is loved and wanted. It’s absolutely amazing, the thrill of it is great.”
One day Brenda went back to where she was in digs, and the landlady was having some decorating done. Horace was the decorator’s name, and eventually they met and got married. “I knew Horace was the right person to marry, more than just infatuation. I felt one day there was something inside me saying something was wrong, and do you know he’d had an accident the same time. He fallen off a footplate, and was off work for a long time.”
Brenda and Horace got married in 1960. Their third child, John, was born in ’66 with a congenital heart defect, which was devastating. “The only night he slept through was the day he was born, and even then he was making funny noises. They thought they could perform an operation to correct it, but the catheter ended up looping in his neck and cutting off the oxygen supply to his brain, paralysing him down his left side. It transpired that he would need further surgery when he was 5. I prepared him as you should, saying I would be there, only to find out that they had changed procedure to perform the operation when he was 7. I was furious – I’m a calmer person now. One day I went home (I was working again) and the babysitter was crying. Apparently John had said that he was going to die and go and live with Jesus. I had never talked to him like that, so I don’t know where he got it from. …”
I’ll finish Brenda’s story tomorrow. Brenda’s story reminds me that God is with us even when circumstances draw us away. | 