From the Publisher’s Wife…Choices

The news was so shocking. My first inclination was to turn my mind to something else so that I did not have to consider the tragic end of a dear couple whom we and so many people in the community have known for years. But there it was — a truth that could not be ignored — Ed and Lotte Brown had been killed in an accident when their motor home turned over and caught fire.
Many kind and loving things were said about Ed and Lotte at their funeral service and all of them were true, but perhaps one of the most important qualities, which they lived out to the highest degree, was faithfulness.
I don’t know when either of them became a Christian because when we first met them in the 80s, they had already raised their children and were busy passing their faith on to the next generation. Each of them had his job at the Methodist Church in Wildwood Crest. They chose the hard tasks and never shirked in carrying them out. Ed was the faithful bus driver who drove the blue church van all over the island Sunday after Sunday picking up children whose parents couldn’t or wouldn’t take them to church. Sometimes they would be tumbled out of bed and shoved to the door hardly out of PJ’s. Ed chose to do this because he believed all those little children needed to be in church.
Lotte was the children’s coordinator along with Marilyn Ricci, and together they provided a children’s program that influenced many lives. The children were the driving force for that husband and wife team. It was a hard choice but they never abandoned it.
Even when they went to the Lighthouse Church years later they chose to work with the children which is always the hardest role to fill in any church. They were committed regardless of the hardships of no building or finances (the church met in an office, then a theatre and then a school).
Ed and Lotte were the first to spur the dream of a building for the growing church and put their money where their dream lay. Choices one made were never abandoned.
There is another story here that is painful to remember but I believe it speaks volumes about this lovely couple. Lotte suffered severe nerve damage years ago as a result of surgery. When she was in the recovery stage, I visited her and Ed with a meal. I was so shocked when Ed took me into the bedroom and there lay his precious wife weeping and crying for Jesus to “take me.” Her pain was unremitting, severe and seemed to offer a future of nothing better. I was devastated to see this wonderful woman laid so low. If that were the end of the story it would be sad but understandable with the naked pain and suffering which was before my eyes.
Actually, it was the beginning of a remarkable journey. There began a “new normal” for this active, vibrant couple. Each of them made the choice to take what was given them and to continue to radiate joy and love. Ed became the physical helper because Lotte never recovered except in her spirit where life dwells. Without Ed she could not move but she could still think and so life moved on. Do you imagine that Ed was a saint who never missed the freedom lost by caring for an invalid wife? Do you imagine it was easy for Lotte to continue to smile, and be interested in other people’s lives and affairs when her existence was so hard?
To think that was the case would be to underestimate the integrity and fiber of these two remarkable people. Not long ago Ed confided in my husband with tears in his eyes “it is very hard.” But when does “hard” have anything to do with making a choice and being honor-bound to carry it out?
Ed and Lotte, we salute you as you reap your rewards of lives well lived. There are many of us here who watched you make difficult choices and stick to them and love you for the examples you set.
PATRICIA HALL, the publisher’s wife