Goodbye Mom

I had just turned on my computer in Shanghai, China, when an email arrived with an urgent message from my cousin to call concerning my mother, Etta Cole. He told me that she had just started out of the apartment driveway in her 1992 Dodge Dynasty to pick up volunteers for a food pantry the Tallmadge First Church of God operated in Akron, Ohio. Instead, however, she became ill, and ended up in the hospital where they had done several tests and were awaiting the results. When I called, the doctor told me she had found her laying in her bed not breathing. They had tried to revive her, but were unsuccessful.

She had left the planet for her new residence in Heaven with Jesus her Savior.

She lived and died exactly the way she believed she should. She awoke every day with a purpose which was shaped and colored by her Kingdom of God perspective. She believed that God wanted to use her life and would empower her to accomplish each day's goals even if it meant sacrifice, a little pain, or a lot of effort. And God did not let her down. She never felt sorry for herself, and always, always answered that she was doing "great", when asked by anyone.

She thought of the needs of others almost always more than herself. Since I was separated from her by so many miles, it used to bother me to think of her in need of any kind. If only she would move to Oklahoma where I lived, I'd tell her. But she wouldn't have it. She loved me, my wife, the kids and grand kids, but Ohio was her home, and the Tallmadge First Church of God was her place of ministry.

Two or three days before she died, she told me that she had prayed that when it was her time to go, she wanted to go "working." Her prayer was answered just as she wanted.

She loved people by offering grace and mercy, regardless of their lifestyle. Her one desire above all was that her family and friends would know Jesus, practice their faith at a local church, and go to heaven when they died.

She was raised on a farm in West Virgina, one of nine children. She loved and married my Dad, Jim Cole, right after World War II. My Dad used to say that he felt like the luckiest guy in the world to be married to Etta. She and my Dad had been teenagers in the church youth group. That spiritual upbringing served them well during the depression years of the 1930's, World War II in the 1940's, and raising their only child.


When I was a youngster, my mother instilled in me the stories from the Bible as she tucked me into bed and read to me from Egermiers' Bible Story Book. As she prayed with me each night, I became convinced that she believed every word in the Bible, and that I could bank my life on the Author of life, Jesus, just as she had.

She was my most loyal and ardent supporter. I was never without her love regardless of the miles. I will miss her more than I can say, but would never call her back from that glorious place in God's forever kingdom.