“So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7

Violet, Part 3

One day I found Violet standing in my driveway with her cart. “I want some potatoes, eggs, and macaroni and cheese.” I told her I could give her potatoes and eggs but didn’t have macaroni and cheese. “You will give me some,” she said. She was very hard to understand. She mumbled and didn’t look up, and had a heavy accent.

I said, “I will give you what I have.” I went in to get the potatoes and eggs, along with a few other easy-to-cook items, plus healthy fruits and vegetables, and put it all in her basket. It was cold out but I didn’t think she would come inside, so I asked if she would like to get out of the cold in my car. She seemed glad to climb in, and we began to talk.

She told me, “Your husband is a good man. He takes me to the bus stop. Is he a religious man? He tells me about Jesus. I don’t believe that way. I am Indian.” Indeed, she had the snowy white hair and tan, leathery skin of a very old Native American. She told me the name of her tribe.

“Violet, why do you travel so far to get your mail? It’s hard for you to catch the bus every day. Let’s get you a P.O. box at our local post office.” She issued a tirade against the local post office, and everyone else in our community, accusing them of stealing her mail and all sorts of other horrible acts against her. For whatever reason, she trusted only the one post office.

“How do you pay your bills, Violet?” She said she didn’t have any bills. “Don’t you have phone service?” She said they recently turned it off. “Is it because you didn’t pay your bills?” She didn’t know. “You must have phone service for emergencies. I’m going to call them right now on my cell phone.” I got her set up with the low-income, senior, so-many-minutes-per-month plan, just for emergencies. She gave me a picture identification card so I could give them her information. With her sitting beside me listening, I knew she could not accuse me of trying to do her harm.

I talked to senior services of all sorts. Meals on Wheels agreed to start providing meals again. We got her set up with firewood delivery. With every conceivable foreseen need taken care of, we thought she could get along all right.

She told me once that she objected so strongly to going to a doctor because she feared being taken from her home from people who felt she couldn’t manage on her own. She objected to going to the hospital because sometimes people “don’t come home.” One day an ambulance came for her. I don’t know who called for them, but she refused to go. They came later, this time with a police officer, and forced her to go, kicking and yelling. We asked the cat-feeding lady if she knew what had happened; Violet had pneumonia and a high fever, and was very sick.

She lived through that ordeal, but was not allowed to come back to her trailer, so she was given a room at a local Native American facility for the elderly. The lady kept on coming out to feed the cats. A friend from church went to Violet’s room and sang worship songs to her and told her how much God loved her. She seemed to have softened. Another friend went to her bedside and shared Jesus with her. After several months, she passed—hopefully into the arms of Jesus.

She lived a solitary life—all her childen had “disowned” her long before. She never said why. She fought for her very life—her right to her own lifestyle and home—all those years alone. But when I look back at the whole story, I see how God used so many different people in Violet’s final years on this earth to let her live long enough to meet Jesus—firemen, police, neighbors, community workers, a worship leader, hospital chaplains, a nurse, complete strangers, and many more I don’t know about, whom God used to prolong her life so she could hear and receive the Good News.

He is not willing that any should perish. Our heavenly Father sought her out and pursued her, crossing over all the barriers and strongholds of culture and family dynamics, the emotional walls, health issues, and a very long past. She was a difficult person to love well, but that didn’t bother God one bit. Nothing is too hard for Him. He knows how to save.

“Lord, You alone have the power to save. Would You pursue the difficult people in our lives—and help us to love them well, with Your perfect, sacrificial love that never gives up, and never fails. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”