November 14, 2005

• LaVerne Washburn

  
  

  Obituary from Daily Gazette Nov. 15, 2005

  
  

   

  
  

  LaVerne Washburn

  
  

  
  

  Scotia ・LaVerne Hugo Washburn, 95, was called home to be with her beloved Lord on November 12, 2005, while residing at the Baptist Health Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Scotia.
     

  
  

      Born in Daggett, Michigan, she was one of four daughters of the late Anna and Alec Olson and spent most of her early life in Escanaba, Michigan.
      She was the wife of the late Rev. Dr. John Hugo and the late David D. Washburn; mother of  J. Allan Hugo of Scotia, and the late Ann LaVerne Peacock of Marrietta, GA.
      She lived in New York City for seven years before coming to the Schenectady area in 1945.
       LaVerne was employed at the former H.S. Barney Company before joining the General Electric Research and Development Center in Niskayuna in the drafting department. She retired in 1972 after 22 years of service to the General Electric Company. She was an organist and pianist and served the Lord willingly with her talents.
      Further survivors include a sister, Francis Lindblad of Escanaba, MI; six grandchildren, Linda Shaffer of Fredericksburg, VA, Lori Platek of Edgewater, MD, The Rev. David Peacock of Colorado, Constance Matsumoto of Tokyo, Japan, the Rev. Stephen Hugo of Bourbonnais, IL and Dr. John Hugo of Forest, VA; and ten great-grandchildren.
      Funeral services will be held Wednesday, November 16 at 2 p.m. from the White Funeral Home, 264 N. Ballston Avenue, Scotia.  377-2300
      Relatives and friends are invited and may call from 12 to 2 p.m. at the funeral home on Wednesday.
      Interment will be in Memory's Garden following the funeral service.
      Those wishing to remember LaVerne in a special way and in lieu of flowers, please be so kind as to send contributions to either Faith Baptist Church, P.O. Box 206, Rexford, NY 12148 or the Klingberg Family Centers, 320 Linwood Street, New Britain, CT 96052

  
  

  I received a call that my grandmother passed away yesterday.  My brother Steve is going to do the funeral, and my other brother John is going to sing Day by Day, which I understand was her favorite hymn.  Grandpa reportedly liked Beyond the Sunset.  I will not be able to attend because of the distance involved, but wanted to write a tribute. 

  
  

  

  
  

  at one year old

  
  

  The last time that I actually talked to Grandma LaVerne was in August 2004.  She was somewhat talkative, so she was having a "good" day.  I am not sure that she knew who I was, but it didn't really matter, because I knew who she was and all that she had done for me all of my life.  She kept telling me from her wheelchair about how hard she had been working, and that she didn't want to do that anymore.  I told her that she had done a fine job and that she deserved a good rest after all that work.  Praise God that she has finally entered into the rest and reward that is promised to her and all who claim the name of Jesus as Savior.

  
  

  

  
  

  at three years old

  
  

  After being widowed in her forties, she was a hard worker for many years at General Electric.  I never saw her at the workplace, but I know that she continued working hard when she got home after a full day of work.   Everything about her was impeccable.  Not one of her snowy white hairs was ever out of place, and I never saw her in anything but a skirt. She was not endowed with wealth, but her home was a decorator's dream with thick padded rugs, lace doilies and and lush draperies. Nothing was ever dusty or out of place.  Perhaps this "always ready for company" mode came from her years as a pastor's wife.  But there was nothing austere about her housekeeping, and she always made whoever came to visit feel comfortable and at home.  

  
  

  

  
  

  Grandma on the lower right

  
  

  During my younger years, Grandma lived just down the street, and later, in the upstairs of the two story house in which our family lived, so it was a simple matter to stay overnight at Grandma's.  Her spare bedroom was as comfortable as any first class hotel, with a spacious double bed graced by fresh sheets and satin bedspreads.  Breakfast was always scrambled eggs done to perfection and toast overdone to perfection. She would direct uncomplimentary remarks at the toaster, scrape the burnt layer off because that was the last piece of bread she had in the house, and top it with raspberry jam.  I always remember her whenever I scrape off overtoasted bread, and expensive as it is in Japan, I use nothing but raspberry jam. 

  
  

  

  
  

  wedding picture - too bad we never got to meet our Grandpa!

  
  

  Living one floor above us made Grandma a convenient baby sitter, and she always spoiled us with candy, cookies, ice cream and gum when she looked after us.  She would chew mostly some kind of gum that did not stick to her dentures, which she would occasionally rattle with her tongue just to impress us.  Once she slipped us some forbidden bubble gum, but Mom found out when John spilled the beans.  A quiet discussion took place upstairs, and we never got any more rolls of pink Bazooka.    Sometimes we would engage in "roughhousing," and she would entreat us to stop because we were "making her so nervous," but we knew that she would not spank us, so we usually continued until my parents downstairs began to complain about plaster falling from the first floor ceiling.  One roughhousing incident that is permanently engraved upon my nether regions took place when Grandma got a new refrigerator.  It had come in an amazingly huge cardboard box that easily accommodated two young ruffians, but I saw fit to evict my brother John  from the premises with a two legged push, and he was careless enough to bump his head on a nearby radiator.  He really should have been more careful.  There was also an incident involving me spinning John in a chair near the second story window, but that has thankfully not remained in my memory, so I assume that John remained in the chair.  Steve was endowed with the good sense to stay out of my way.  Grandma would not spank us, but dad would.  Thank you, Grandma, for working so hard to give us a soft, warm and orderly place to be.

  
  

  

  
  

  New York City

  
  

  Grandma was always ready for company, and whatever company did arrive was served a banquet to be carved in the stone of gastronomic history, because she was a fabulous cook.  She baked the holidays for us, with shrimp cocktail, turkey, dressing, white and sweet potatoes, cranberry bread and sauce, Jello salad, some kind of overboiled green vegetable (Hey, nobody's perfect!) and two kinds of pies, pumpkin and apple, with ice cream for anybody who still had room.  Her son and son in law would often engage in eating contests, with both the winner and the looser ending up unconcious and snoring in front of some football game on television.  Also memorable were butter cookies and the ones with a single Hershey's kiss pushed into the center.   Grandma LaVerne was also in charge of the Easter Basket department, and was kind enough to give us one every year, complete with a chocolate bunny.  Thank you, Grandma, for all of your hard holiday work and all of our wonderful holiday memories. 

  
  

  

  
  

  A holiday feast - the cook is third from the right

  
  

  Grandma LaVerne worked hard to keep us warm, and knitted us all kinds of sweaters and caps that were worn faithfully under our winter snowsuits.  Thank you Grandma for knitting so many things for us that the doctor told you to stop because your neck was getting sore.

  
  

  

  
  

  My red sweater by Grandma

  
  

  

  
  

  Grandma LaVerne also worked hard at music.  She loved playing, singing and listening to music.  Her favorite pop idols were Tennessee Ernie Ford, Mitch Miller and Lawrence Welk, and if she was not watching them on television every week she had them playing on her stereo.  She seldom got to watch Mitch or the Luffly Lennon Sisters in peace, because her dear son would razz her about the canned music, plastic smiles and bubble machines, but she took it all in stride and a good time was had by all, I think.

  
  

  

  
  

  Grandma on the left, yours truly front and center.

  
  

  She was the church organist (and pastor's wife before Grandpa's death in 1951) at Central Baptist Church on Swan Street in Schenectady about forty years ago, before the church merged with another group from Glennville to become the present Faith Baptist Church of Rexford.  Although Grandma LaVerne's main musical genre was hymnology, she was also known to bang out a mean polka.  She played at church every week except for once when she attempted to demonstrate to her daughter Ann how one of her new fangled serrated knives could cut through a frozen English muffin.  Let us draw the curtain upon this scene...

  
  

  

  
  

  Grandma LaVerne protecting John from me.

  
  

  Grandma preferred to sing alto, and I had always wondered how she could manage to pick out the harmonies, but I suppose that as an organist it just came to her naturally.  Thank you Grandma, for working hard at music and teaching me by your example.

  
  

  

  
  

  Steve knew enough to stay out of my way...

  
  

  

  
  

  What would I like to inherit from Grandma LaVerne?  As far as material things go, I have the mixing bowls in which she concocted our holidays and some of the serving dishes that graced her holiday tables.  I have her delicious apple bread, pie crust and Jello salad recipes. But even more then these vehicles to the happy pasts that she made for us, I would like to inherit her laugh, that loud, infectious, joyful belly laugh that emanated from the bottom of her heart.

  
  

  

  
  

  The Bible tells us that God is the God of the living, and not of the dead.  Grandma LaVerne has been released from her frail, worn-out body and is now in the presence of God himself, and there is nothing that could persuade her to want to come back.  I imagine that she has quite a bit to catch up on as she meets with loved ones who have gone on before her, but after that, I also imagine that she will want to continue working hard, starting with a touch-up of any rusty spots on the Pearly Gates and a good polishing of those streets of gold.  Yes, Heaven is about to undergo a major cleaning and redecorating, and I am looking forward to seeing all of the improvements that she has made when I get there someday.

  
  

  

  
  

  Never without whipped cream!

  
  

  I was lucky enough to be able to pay Grandma LaVerne a visit last August.  We brought her a milkshake, one of her major pleasures in her last years, and she said that it was good and that we should come back and see her again, but not today.  There was a singing Teddy bear in her room that had been a gift from her daughter Ann who recently passed away unexpectedly at the age of 66.  Part of the bear's song says, "Love you forever and forever, Love you with all my heart.  Love you whenever we're together, Love you when we're apart."

  
  

  

  
  

  2004 - Happy to see you!

  
  

  Grandma LaVerne was no longer able to understand about Ann's death and knew nothing of it.  Silly as it might be, I felt Ann's love through the bear's song, love from beyond death and the grave, and I told Grandma that I loved her and that Ann loves her, because God is indeed the God of the living and not of the dead.  God is forever, and so is love, of which He is the author.  I love you, Grandma, and I know that you love me.  We have not said, "Goodbye," because your spirit is will never die.  It is free, now able to travel where it will at the speed of thought.  I know that you are working again, whether it is mending angels's wings, singing praises with the heavenly choirs before the throne of God or praying for all of us that still remain, but this time your work is not a burden, but pure joy.  Death is not the end, because Jesus has conquered it.  Amen.

  
  

  

  
  

  I wonder if the bear sang at the funeral, too.  I'll bet John did a better job.

  
  

   

  
  

  Here is Rev. Steve Hugo's text from Grandma LaVerne's funeral. 

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  Message text from my grandma's service today: Read I Thessalonians 4:13-18   Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.   According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore encourage each other with these words.           We are gathered here this afternoon with mixed emotions to celebrate the home~going of a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother and wonderful friend, my grandma,  LaVerne Washburn and to give thanks for the life of this  godly woman.  There should not be much sorrow this afternoon, because my grandma is not dead: she is now more alive than any of us here.  She has been freed from her earthly bondage to decay, and is now reveling in the Presence of the One who loves her.  It is our knowledge that Grandma is now happier, more loved and more alive than she has ever been; that she is in the embrace of Joy himself.         We have come here this afternoon to acknowledge and affirm this truth, and to give thanks for the life of a servant of the Most High.  Nothing here is loss: there is only gain.   For so many years, grandma Laverne filled a place in our lives, that place that was lost in the past few years to the decay that plagues creation.  The place that she held with us went far beyond the turkey, stuffing, pies and my personal favorite, sweet potatoes.  She has been a woman of godly desire and character who always said to me: "I pray for you every day."  We will always remember her hard work, her devotion, and her enduring faith in the Lord.   How wonderful it would have been to share one more lucid moment with Grandma, to talk to her, to have her acknowledge you and the love that you faithfully showed to her: but just wait:  It's coming, but not yet.      Our emotions are mixed, and we know that they really shouldn't be, because we have this odd hope,  this confidence, this assurance, that decay and death are not the end, but merely a transition.  But it is alright to cry today, seeing that Jesus did so at the tomb of his dear friend Lazarus, fully knowing that he would soon be brought back to life.  Jesus is indeed the resurrection and the life, and we know that Grandma is therefore not dead, but is finding out what it really means to be alive in Christ.      Now my Grandma wants me to explain something to you.  She wants me to remind you that her demise and death were not of God's doing.     Romans 5:12 states that through our forefather Adam, sin entered into the world, and death entered creation as a direct result of Adam's sin. In Adam, all die.   Sin's presence in the world is the ultimate cause of all death and suffering.  Corporately, the human race is responsible for effects of age that have taken grandma away step by step.  Mankind, as a race of fallen creatures, is responsible for pain, and death, and suffering.  This has been brought upon us by ourselves as the human race.   Isaiah 24: 4 - 6 declare: The earth dries up and withers,     the world languishes and withers,     the exalted of the earth languish.   The earth is defiled by its people;     they have disobeyed the laws,     violated the statutes     and broken the everlasting covenant.   Therefore a curse consumes the earth;     its people must bear their guilt.   Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up,      and very few are left.   As long as sin is in the world, death and decay will be among us, as a proper consequence of sin.  But even in this there is the hope given by God.   In Romans 8:18 through 23, we read:   I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by it's own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation will one day be liberated from it's bondage to decay, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.     We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first~fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.   Man is self-destined to suffer, but by his grace, God has destined those who know Christ to no longer be a part of this bondage to decay.  Funerals were not part of God's plan for our lives, but due to the sinful acts of man, these events are with us, for now.     There will come a day when the Lord will deal in finality with sin and it's inherent decay of all creation. Events such as we experience today will be blotted out, never more to be part of the lives of anyone.   So please, long with me for the Day when all the terrible consequences of sin, such as decay and death will be wiped away.   Revelation 21 speaks of this future day:   Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes. there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.   Secondly my grandma wants you to know this:     God is not unconcerned with our sorrows.   There are those who choose to believe that God is unconcerned with the lot of fallen mankind.  After all, if God is all powerful, could he not have prevented Grandma's deteriorization and death?  Could not the Creator of all have repaired the effects of time on her mind and body and given us a little more time with her?   Yes he could have, but he chooses not to.  Death became a proper consequence of mankind's sin, and God would wrong us if he were to remove it.   Understand that God could have corrected the process that weaned her form us.  God also could have stopped the nails that pierced the hands and feet of His son, Jesus Christ. He could have stopped the death of the Lord, but he chose not to.  God understands your sorrow this afternoon because he too has felt it.  He has seen the agony and the death of his innocent, sinless, one and only begotten Son.   To grieve and to sorrow is fine and called for. Throughout Scripture, we see Godly men and women grieving the death of loved ones. From Abraham's grief over Sarah's death to David's mourning King Saul, godly people grieved.   For now, we are stuck with the consequences of sin, such as this service and the tears that you have shed. Jesus himself wept at the tomb of his soon to be raised up friend Lazarus.  God fully understands your loss this afternoon.   Any sadness will pass in time, and will be used of God to make you more solid in your faith in Him, and to make you more solid in your relationships with those around you just as it has in these past days.    There is another most important matter that Grandma wants me to express to you afternoon, and that is to explain how you might have the same hope that she was called so long ago.   The gospel that is our only hope is simply this:   Romans 3:24 states that we all have a common problem.  "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  It doesn't matter who you're related to, or how much good you have done.  You have got a problem: it's name is Sin   Romans 6:23 declares the depth of the problem: "The wages of sin is death."  If our sin is not dealt with, we face eternal death in the lake of fire, reserved for the devil and his angels.   Romans 6:23 also continues: "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."   Each of us needs to come to Jesus Christ personally, by faith for salvation.   The Bible says in John 3:16 "For God loved the world so much, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him, might not perish, but have eternal life."   This afternoon, if you want to do something to remember Laverne Washburn, accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. There is no time like the present there is no reason to wait: you know that it's true!   If you already one who seeks to follow Christ are a Christian, take this moment to recommit yourself to greater service to Christ, following her example of enduring faith and devotion.   (Proverbs 3:5-6)  Trust in the LORD with all your heart     and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him,     and he will make your paths straight.

  
  

  This in from cousin Lori Platek!

  
  

  Some of the memories that you captured.....like getting caught by our parents when Grandma gave us bubble gum......the same thing happened to us.    And the burned toast senario........I have those same memories.......mostly of burned grilled cheese.....you did forget to mention the root beer floats and the glider on the porch though......Ha!  She was so awesome.  I thought about her and everyone at the service all day today. 

  
  

  Remember Dave's Corner Store and the trips to get candy?  And the park in Schenectady.....Bible School.......sewing class.....do you remember the plastic table cloth that she put over the lace one on holidays?  I punched holes around all the edges on my side of the table.  I remember my mother pinching me under the table when I got caught.

  
  

   

  
  

  Commentary:  I must have made a jillion trips to Dave's Corner Store.  Dave was a feisty Welshman who ran the store with his wife and brother, and would always tell us to "Hurry on!" when we took too much time making a selection.  Grandma always told us to be careful when crossing the street to get to Dave's because that was a "bad corner" traffic wise.  He had candy, comic books and a glass case full of the most delicious cookies!  Perhaps he was the forerunner to the "convenience" store of today. 

  
  

   

  
  

  The porch equipment also included geraniums.

  
  

   

  
  

  The pinching must have been done quietly, as I never knew of any holes in a plastic tablecloth.  Lori, you were just adding to the lace effect by crocheting in the plastic with your fingers because you were bored waiting for your dad to pass the food along!  Haha!  

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