Edith Nelson

Edith Nelson. Born February 3, 1917. Died July 25, 2009. These simple details bracket the life of woman who throughout her life showered blessings on those around her. Our Mom was born in a sod farmhouse near Goodrich, North Dakota to tenant farmers Jacob and Laura Stigelmayer during a prairie blizzard so blinding that Jacob could only navigate between house and barn by holding onto a safety rope connecting the two buildings. She was the third-born of Jacob and Laura?s eight children, and the second oldest of the six that survived beyond infancy. At age 11 Laura died suddenly. As the oldest female daughter, Mom became responsible for managing the household and helping raise her younger siblings. At age 14, about one year after Jacob remarried, Mom left the family house. God eventually led her to Northwestern Bible College in Minneapolis, where in 1941 she met and married our Dad, Herbert Nelson, who was a seminary student. Together they served the Lord pastoring churches (including founding the Alexandria Evangelical Covenant Church), raising four children, and always, always serving God. In 1993 they moved to the Senator Condominiums in Alexandria to be near our sister Judy. Mom continued living at The Senator after Dad died until being hospitalized in June with congestive heart failure. But this simple recitation of facts fails utterly in conveying the power of God to work through one humble person who is willing to devote herself to following God wherever he may lead. God called her to serve and support others, not only with her hands but most particularly with her heart and with her prayers. She came beside our Father as a pillar of support as he founded and led congregations for the Evangelical Covenant Church in various locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Arizona. She knew that her children were really God?s children, entrusted to her and Dad to raise. She always yielded herself as God?s servant to those whom God placed around her. Whether it was the hobo seeking a sandwich coming to the back door of houses where she worked as a maid, or the head of a church body, she knew God had a plan and purpose for her for that person. Through it all she prayed for all whom God placed before her. She prayed for co-workers, for friends and neighbors, for Christian workers around the world, and for all of the people of the world who had not yet come to know God?s saving power and grace. Even as she lay bed-ridden in the last several weeks of her life, she would pray continually for the people God brought to her mind as needing prayer. She has now attained not only what she wanted, but that which she was eagerly awaiting. She believed very certainly that she had accomplished on this earth that which God had intended for her, and she was beyond ready to leave this life and to join with her husband in the presence of her Lord, Savior and God. Though we miss her, we appreciate the blessings that God bestowed through her life, and we rejoice that now she has attained a reward that renders meaningless anything that could ever have been realized in this world. Our greatest comfort is continuing to see the impact of her life reverberating through the people to whom God ministered through her. Mom was preceded in death by her parents, by her siblings Emma, Edward, Alice (Kosson), Alvin, Emil, Raymond, and Margaret Lillian (Helm). She is survived by her children Judith (Vernon) Anderson of Alexandria, David (Priscilla) Nelson of Eau Claire, WI, Beverly (Ronald) Smith of Tacoma, WA, and Stephen (Kathryn) Nelson of Bellevue, WA, and each of their spouses, 11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. A funeral service will be held July 31, 2009 at the Alexandria Evangelical Covenant Church, with interment at Evergreen Cemetery. Arrangements were with the Anderson Funeral Home. www.andersonfuneral.net