Eulogy for my Gram

The following is the eulogy that I wrote for my Gram, Betty Jo Lowe-Krout. I wanted to brag a little about her because I miss seeing her every week in worship. I hope you are inspired by her discipleship as I have always been. We were both proud of each other.

October 7, 2011

Dear God,

I write you, Lord, on behalf of all who know and love Betty Jo. We want to say; “Thank you”. Thank you for creating, redeeming and sustaining Betty Jo. You made her a ‘good egg’. She is ‘a keeper’.

Lord, you sure did pack a lot of amazing qualities into a five-foot-two-inch body! You fashioned her with intelligence, caring, stubbornness, fun, love, faith, class, and wisdom. Betty Jo was comforting, joyful, friendly, creative, musical, thrifty, giving, and devoted. She had her quirks like drinking her strange concoction of wheat germ goop with gelatin and the billions of vitamins she swallowed yearly. But we love her anyway and are deeply grateful for her eighty-four years on this earth.

We are all blessed because of her impact and positive influence on our lives.
Lord, you blessed Betty Jo with family. She was nestled in the middle of her siblings: Anna Lou and Jim. Her parents George and Julia were entrusted with a blue-eyed daughter who loved dance lessons and music (she played violin and sang), reading and writing. They made sure she was baptized in their home congregation of Jamestown UMC the January after her May birth. She was also surrounded by loving, kind grandparents who helped fashion her strength and Christian faith.

Betty Jo’s early years were humble and simple. People would today call her situation: poor. Her modest childhood explains her later hobby of doll making and dollhouses. She loved to read anything and everything. She was a consistent letter writer. As a pre-teen she created and designed her own newspaper. Her childhood dream was to become a writer and/or journalist.

Lord, you blessed Betty Jo with intelligence and determination. She graduated from Crawfordsville High School in three and a half years. She was the valedictorian of her class. She wanted to go onto college, but the financial resources were nonexistent and there were few choices that appealed to her.

She may have never made it to a four year college, but my final year at Duke Divinity School, Gram attended my Preaching the Parables class with Dr. Richard Lischer. (I think she was the only grandmother to ever sit in at Duke.) A week later Gram mailed me a letter with the completed homework assignment that Dr. Lischer gave in class. The assignment was to write an original parable. I handed in her paper with mine. I am proud to say we both got A’s. Didn’t I say she was a capable writer?!

Lord, you blessed Betty Jo with faithful, devoted husbands; first with Grant and then later with Gene. During high school, she met Grant Lowe at a county Methodist youth gathering. He later drove his brand new tractor to her house to propose. They were married July 30, 1944. And they quickly gave birth to two intelligent, beautiful daughters. But their home and love took in countless stray critters (i.e. birds, pigs, lambs, and raccoons) as well as the eight young men who worked for them became “their boys.”

Married to a farmer and not content to be cooped up in the house, Betty Jo insisted that “if she was going to be responsible for the farm, she needed to learn how to drive a tractor.” Remember Lord, you made her stubborn! And she did plant crops and plow fields; much to the stunned amazement of her Quaker in-laws and family. Grant and Betty Jo were partners in love, life, service, and their family business.

Lord, you blessed Betty Jo with tiny, petite but able hands. And she used her hands to care for her family. Her Grandmother Dixon, a professional seamstress, taught her to sew. She took chicken feed sacks and made clothes for her daughters. Later she passed her sewing skill onto her daughters.

Betty Jo gently cared for her family in times of medical need and/or end of life circumstances. She supported her in-laws Jonathon and Jesse, her grandparents Grandma and Grandpa Dixon, her Aunt Ruth, her mother Julia, and her sister Anna Lou. Betty Jo was a life-long mental health advocate. She showed all of us kindness, comfort, and consolation in our times of sorrow or distress. Many times she has dried our tears. Gene calls her, ‘his minister’, because of the consolation and support she gave him in his grief over his first wife’s death.

When her daughters got older Betty Jo took floral design classes at the Purdue University Ag Extension. She worked at Brownsburg Flower Shop from 1965 to 1994. She received an Associate’s Degree from Ivy Tech in Nursing Home Activities while also taking classes in accounting and business to help with the Lowe Farm business.

Lord, only you know how many millions of green beans, tomatoes, and peaches Betty Jo canned with her hands over the years. Or how many flowers she arranged for worship every Sunday at Lizton UMC. Or how many sleeping bags she made for the homeless. Or how many prayer shawls she crochet’ed or how many preemie baby clothes she made for local hospitals. Or how many Sunday School lessons she taught for the Koinia Class at Lizton UMC or Seekers Class at Calvary UMC.

My favorite memory of Gram as a creative, passionate teacher is the Sunday morning Grandpa Grant was loading the car for church. He kept carrying all sorts of stuff to the car. Two trips later, I asked her why she had him put in a large planter with a rubber snake sticking its’ head out of the leaves. She replied with a chuckle, “Oh, that’s my visual aid. I’m teaching on the Garden of Eden story today.” Apparently Satan was the rubber snake.

Lord, later in her life when she was at a crossroads following Grant’s death, you gave Betty Jo the gift of Gene. What a blessing he has been to Betty Jo; giving her companionship, friendship, passion, and joy! Betty Jo had lots of love to give and her love grew and multiplied as she and Gene connected and created a larger family. Gene gave her the opportunity to play and travel on their wonderful trips to Hawaii, Florida, Mt. Rushmore/Yellowstone, and countless shorter trips around Indiana. Their romance and friendship has been a gift to all of us.

Finally, Lord, your Holy Spirit blessed Betty Jo with a robust living faith! She was a person of simple piety and personal prayer, but also a person who put her belief in God into action. Your Spirit anointed her with gifts of giving, healing, intercession, wisdom, teaching and mercy. And she used those gifts fully.

We say to you, Lord, thank you for your outpouring of blessings upon Betty Jo. We are very proud of her. And our pride and admiration are small in comparison of your great love for her. We, her family and friends, trust that You, O God, said to her a week ago last Thursday, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done!”

All my love,

Michelle (a.k.a. one of Betty Jo’s “sweethearts”)