My friend has gone home for Thanksgiving...I mean really home...home with Jesus. As we sit around our tables this Thursday, recounting our blessings, Lorna will be with the Blessing Giver. She is so very deserving of every blessing she has had, and every reward she will receive. She lived a life of sacrifice, and a life of surrender. She was my spiritual mentor, and I shall miss her greatly.
At age 19 Lorna took her guitar and traveled to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to hold a revival in a Methodist Church. That revival resulted in her planting a Church of the Nazarene in Pickford, Michigan. After she met and married Don Holley, they moved all over the United States as pastors and evangelists. To this day, the day of her death, she has had people reaching out to her, calling her, wanting spiritual advice, counseling, prayer. She was a great prayer warrior...I called upon her often when my needs were heavy.
She and her husband settled down in a log home here on Indian Lake Campground about 40 years ago so Lorna could care for her ailing husband and aging parents. She cared for them all until each of their deaths. Her mother lived to be over 100 years of age. That care giving took its toll on Lorna's life. Even though Lorna lived to be over 91 years of age, her health has not been good for many years. At the end of her life she had 15% heart capacity. We thought she would be taken from us in August, but lived another three months in a nursing home, unable to care for herself at home any longer.
Her son was at her side every single day she was in the nursing home. He was amazing in his care for her. She was the most popular resident at TenderCare...she had more visitors than anyone else. One special visitor came to see her almost every afternoon, and the whole facility was tickled to see her...Betsy, a toy Pomeranian. When Lorna held her, she was the envy of all the other residents. Betsy would bring a big smile to Lorna's face.
I'm going to miss Lorna. She lived kitty corner from me, and it was so easy to pop over and walk in her door and sit down at her table and tell her what was on my mind...what I was feeling...what was going on in my family and on the camp. I could cry and know she would understand and she would pray for the hurts, the needs, the confusion I sometimes experienced. Who will be there for me now? I've never had a soul mate before, nor a spiritual mentor. Now that I've had one, I will have a void in my life in her absence.
Lord, thank you for the blessing of Lorna Holley in my life. I am so tickled she is at home with you, living it up and doing things she hasn't been able to do for a long time. May I have learned from her and may I follow her example in being available for others...to be a great listener and prayer warrior. Lord, fill the void. Be near to her family members as they adjust to life without her. Amen.
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