Sweet Memory, Sweet Occasion, Sweet Christ Follower…
It was this week that I learned that in late February in Farmersville, Louisiana, Latance Phelps Futch had passed and gone home to be with her Savior. She was 99 years old. When I learned of her home going sweet memories flashed back in my heart.
It was early on that Sunday morning when I arrived at the Lynchburg Airport to board heading to Charlotte and then on to Monroe Louisiana for a 2 PM church service and presentation of a Liberty University College degree. I was also carrying a letter of congratulations from Jerry Falwell. The School of Divinity had asked me to be the messenger on that day.
The occasion was a graduation service and celebration for Latance Futch who had completed her degree requirements online. She 87 years old and was unable to travel to Lynchburg, so we took the degree to her.
It was a tight schedule that day. I was picked up at the Monroe airport and briskly taken to the Zion Hill Church that was jam packed with family, friends, neighbors and the media. They were gathered to celebrate her accomplishment. At that time, she was the oldest Liberty University graduate since the school was established in 1971. It was a wonderful day, one that I will never forget.
Her friends sent me her obituary and as I read my eyes focused on the following paragraph….
“Latance enjoyed her senior years looking at them as a time to embrace new experiences and learn new things. She started gardening and learned to play the violin and bass guitar, but her greatest accomplishment was fulfilling a lifetime dream of earning her college diploma through Liberty University's Distance Learning Program at the age of 87. She was featured in the May/June 2008 issue of "Liberty Journal". T.A. Powell of Liberty University who traveled to Louisiana to be a part of Latance's graduation ceremony at Zion Hill Church, was quoted, "She impressed me to no end. She was so bright and full of energy, and the little church was jam-packed with people." Latance said it was the most memorable day of her life. Her story even made it to Fox News, who labeled her the "Granny Grad”
Reflections on times like these reminds me of the goodness of God and the blessings of life.