EVERYONE NEEDS A GREAT GRANDMA

We have: the Great Flood, the Great War, the Great Depression, and Alexander the Great. Not many would say all these things are good, but nobody doubts they’re great. These comments sound a bit odd because we tend to associate greatness with goodness, and this because, for most of us, the really great things in our lives have been good. Indeed, were it not so we probably wouldn’t be here. Life is great and, for the most part, good.

Today I want to tell you about one of the great, good people in my life. Her name was Jessie Pluym and she died yesterday at the grand, old age of 98. She was not great in the way the world knows greatness: she wasn’t rich or famous, and if you google her name she doesn’t come up. But, at her funeral, I expect the church will be full, which is pretty good for someone who’s outlived almost all her contemporaries.

I met Jessie on May 31, 1998. I was candidateing at her church in Victoria, BC and, having met with the search committee, boards and staff, I was meeting with the entire congregation for grilling and desert.

The grilling went fine, though it did turn up some of the challenges that would dog us throughout our nine years in Victoria. But at about the halfway point this very impressive, elderly woman stood and introduced herself. “I’m Jessie Pluym,” she informed me, “but everyone calls me ‘Grandma Jessie’. I trust you won’t object if I speak my mind.” She then proceeded to speak her mind. I don’t recall, after all these years, exactly what she said, but I do recall that I discovered a few things about her then and there:

1. This woman had a remarkable mind, a loving spirit, and a great heart.

2. By the way she took command of the room I could see that this woman was the chief Elder of the church, not on paper, but in every way that really mattered.

3. Grandma Jessie and I were going to be great friends for as long as we both lived. – You only meet a handful of people like her in any lifetime, and have few opportunities to be close to many. If I was going to be Lead Pastor of that church Jessie Pluym and I were going to be best friends, constant allies, and intimate confidants.

Throughout the years we spent at Western Community Baptist Church, Jessie was an invaluable source of insight and information. She was a loyal friend, even when it cost her dearly, but more than anything else, Jessie was a prayer warrior and a champion of young people and change.

The church so desperately needs seniors who have not forgotten what it means to be young, given their hearts over to the “good old days”, or grown weary in the practice of prayer. Jessie was that kind of woman, the kind we need in the church... no, in the world today. An Elder, not by appointment but just because she is. And everyone’s grandma.

When we celebrated her 90^th birthday at the church many visitors came, but I noticed an entire row of people who had obviously arrived together; the staff of the Mac store next to the apartment building where she lived. This, I discovered, was where she met the neighbourhood: elderly, homeless, and the kids with, as she lovingly described them “spiked hair and all that metal in their faces”. She loved them all, she loved me and my family, and she’d have loved you too.

If you knew her, you were blessed to know her. If you didn’t, I wish you had. I did, and I’m glad I did.

Along with all the “Greats” in our lives we have “Great” Grandma Jessie! The kind of person I want to be when I grow up. And I still have some growing to do.