A Reflection on Jean (Post from 01/08)

This past weekend I spent some time in NW Iowa. While there I was informed of the passing of one of my dear friends, Jean Olthoff. Now I cannot mourn much because Jean was 80 years old, but it will still be a loss to the earthly community. She is with Jesus now, a wonderful and glorious thought. She seemingly had no health problems so her passing was very sudden. One minute she was vacuuming and the next minute she was gone from this world. An ordinary lady, but an extraordinary Christian. As I heard from Dr. Nederhood this morning at the funeral, she was a woman that would let you talk as much as you wanted to before she would give her response. But, really, it was not her response, it was a response from the Word of God. She studied the Bible so much that she knew exactly where to turn to offer you advice. Jean was a great Christian and she will definitely be missed. However, that is not the end of this blog. I said that she was one of my dear friends, but I have yet to say why. She lived in South Holland for most of those 80 years, but it was not until I was at my previous church that I first met Jean. She was always a shining light for the community. She didn't care what she had to do any day of the week, she would drop everything to help you in what you did. If every asked how she was doing you would get a fast response of "how are you doing?" and if it was a happy response she would echo it and say "I am just fine knowing that you are doing wonderfully." I remember my first ever visit that I went on as a pastoral intern was to Jean's house. I cannot recall that often that I actually had seen Jean in church before I had made this visit. You see, Jean was busy taking care of her husband Ralph who was in the beginning stages of dementia when I went to visit. We visited for about 3 hours and it was such a pleasant visit. This was the first time I really got to talk to Jean. Through the course of the summer I made many visits to many other people and as the summer was coming to a close I decided to make two more visits. The one visit was to my friend Tony (whom I wrote about roughly a year and a half ago on his passing) and the last visit that I made that summer was to Jean and Ralph. I could not attend Tony's funeral so Jean kindly sent me a card telling me about all the goings on in South Holland at that time. Four months later I learned that Ralph had become very sick. So, the first thing I did was go to the store in California and find a card that I could send to Jean. I found a great card and sent it along wishing them my best. It was not more than a day after I sent that card that Ralph died. I now had to send a sympathy card. However, after this card came a return card from Jean. It was a card wishing me well and telling me about all the blessings she now had knowing that Ralph was in a better place. I decided that even though I was no longer the intern at my church I would still call Jean up and go visit her. So, when I came home for Christmas time my first call was to her. We chatted for a long time and she had told me how she knew that her husband was going to die so she had rearranged the furniture in the living room to make it easier for the medics to get to him. Over the next six months we exchanged cards back and forth while we were away from each other. When I came home this past summer I learned that Jean had fallen and I immediately made a phone call to her. She welcomed me with open arms. She said that I could come over and talk with her, even though she was in some pain. This was Jean. This was a very caring lady. When I resumed school in the Fall there was another of Jean's cards waiting for me. Another one came soon after the wildfires telling me how much she had been praying for me. I feel a bit of guilt because I never found a card to send back to Jean in response to this card to let her know that her prayers were appreciated. On Christmas Day of 2007 I saw Jean in church with some of her family members. Apparently this was the first time she had been at Cottage Grove for a few weeks. So, after church I went up to Jean, got my usual hug and kiss greeting from her, and asked her where she had been. She told me that everything was alright and she would discuss that with me when we next met. We had to decided that we would meet the next week. However, Jean went to glory last week Friday, one week before we were supposed to meet together. I suppose that I will not find out where she had been, but I know where she will be. She will be with Jesus, where she always wanted to be. It was relayed to me that on Christmas night she told one of her sons that she wanted to go home while they were driving to her home. He quickly responded that they were almost home and she again said "I want to go home." It was not her earthly home that she was talking about, but that one beyond this world. Flipping through her Bible in preparation for the funeral her sons found a note that simply said "O Jesus, every day I wake to know that you are my Lord it brings joy to me. I long for that day when I am in your presence forever." This was Jean, always showing her Christian committment and her genuine joy that Jesus was in her life.