Sheila and Mother

Mother and Sheila were a mutual admiration club. 

The picture is of a very common occurance; Sheila sitting next to Mother on her couch showing off photos and videos of my grandchildren. 

Ruth Baird Shaw absolutely delighted in seeing pictures of Clemmie and Ruth --- and any of her 80 or so descendants and/or spouses. I love Sheila and Mother each the more for the way they loved each other.

My beautiful wife wrote the following note to her cousins to tell them about Mother's death.

Terrell’s mother, Ruth Baird Shaw, died this morning about 1:40. Terrell’s sister Carol was with her in the hospital. The 5 children who were in town, plus me and a son-in-law, went over and sat with her until the funeral home came. It was a sad but special time of remembering.

She was a remarkable woman who lived a full and meaningful life. Born in a mill town in 1923, the youngest of 11. Married at 15 and a mother at 16. They had 4 children when Terrell’s dad, Charles, answered the call to the ministry and they headed from Georgia to Kentucky so he could go to Asbury College (where Terrell and I met in 1967).

Ruth started taking college extension classes in the 1960s while serving as a pastor’s wife and mothering 7 children who ranged in age from 20s to infancy. Many years later when she was talking with her brother Bill about whether she should finish college, he told her, “Ruth, do it now, while you’re young.” She was 57. He was in his 70s, I think. She did finish that college degree a few years later, at Georgia State, in gerontology.

Terrell’s dad Charles passed away in 1986, leaving her a widow at 63. The small church where Charles was serving part-time in retirement asked Ruth, who had sometimes preached there, to finish the conference year as their pastor. She felt called to do so and before a year passed she enrolled at Candler School of Theology at Emory (where Charles went) to get her own M.Div. degree. She finished at 67 and served as a full time pastor for 3 years until reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. She then served a number of smaller churches and for a few years after moving to Rome was an assistant pastor at our church.

She was a wonderful mother-in-law. I always felt loved by Terrell’s family and he felt loved by my family. We both had the best in-laws!

Sheila is right that I also have been fortunate in my "in-laws". Mavis and Jay Matthews as well as a bunch of aunts and cousins accepted me as part of the Matthews family from the start. I love them all dearly.