A Legacy Starts with Someone
A few years ago, Ray, Mother, and I had the privilege of attending a party in honor of her eldest cousin, John Russell Peck.
All my life I’ve heard Mother speak of John Russell, and especially of his mother, my mother’s beloved Aunt Elsie. Mother had especially fond memories of her two-week stay with Aunt Elsie when she was twelve years old and of the dresses Aunt Elsie made for her.
John Russell went home to be with the Lord last Saturday. I am grateful that Ray, Mother, and I got to visit with him at a family reunion this past September.
One time John Russell told me about the day my mother was born under the watchful care of his and mother’s grandmother, who was a midwife. John Russell was eight years old at the time. He stood out in the yard with the menfolk while the womenfolk attended Granny. I will always cherish that story and the memory of his telling it to me.
John Russell outlived his two brothers and his beloved wife Avanelle after 67 years of marriage. Most recently he has lived with one of his sons and his son’s wife, who gave up her career as a nurse practitioner to take care of him. When I spoke to her at the funeral home, she told me how much she will miss him.
For 94 years John Russell Peck lived a remarkable life. During World War II, he served in Europe as a member of the U.S. Army. He was in the Ardennes, the Rhineland, and in Central Europe. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge. He served in the Tennessee Air National Guard for twenty years before becoming a long distance truck driver, a career he enjoyed for seventeen years. In retirement, he continued to drive a truck for another fourteen years. He delivered disaster relief supplies through the Churches of Christ Disaster Relief ministry. John Russell’s two sons, nine grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren have a wonderful heritage to continue.
Sometimes Ray and I communicate with families who don’t have a wonderful heritage on which to build a family legacy. Through Jesus Christ though, each of us has the opportunity to be part of a wonderful family heritage through our Savior and our Father in heaven. We also have the opportunity to begin a family legacy. Legacies have a beginning. Praise God for the precious opportunity we have either to continue one or to begin one.
Your name, O Lord, is everlasting,
Your remembrance, O Lord,
throughout all generations.
Psalm 135:13
We were the recipients of one of those truck trips for disaster relief for the churches of Christ in Oregon, for a flood. The Lancaster church of Christ in Oregon, near Junction City and Eugene, remembers these people because they attended services here!
Lydia Sherman (Stan Sherman, minister)