I met Mrs Stone at the local shopping center street festival. It was during a time of economic downturn – unemployment was high, school leavers couldn’t find jobs, businesses in the street and elsewhere were closing down and in general there was an air of hopelessness across the community.
So my local church decided it would be a good idea to involve ourselves with the festival. We did so by hiring an empty shop for the day, using it as a base for people to come, sit and talk or to eat their food or ours. Outside the shop we had a stage set up for our street preachers, singers, dancers, and professional puppet show etc, and the gospel messages presented in each event caught the attention of people of all ages as they wandered by.
Some people stopped to ask questions about Christianity, others wanted to know what our church could offer their children and youth, and some simply wanted another person to talk to so they could share their problems and concerns. Looking into the eyes of many people that day told me that loneliness is one of the greatest experiences individuals try to cope with day in and day out, in spite of what they may do, think and say to the contrary.
Mrs Stone was not one to deny her loneliness however. She was an elderly, sickly lady who told me she lived alone in one of the council flats, “just behind these shops.” She said that apart from the odd person residing in those flats she had not had a visitor in years. I offered to become a visitor, so she gave me her address and said, “Can you come next week?” It was the voice of Mrs Stone speaking, but I knew it was also the voice of God. So we chose a day and a time to meet.
I have long believed that everyone has a story to share, but in the case of this dear lady – what a story!
Mrs Stone told me her mother died when she was six years old. Her father remarried but it was not a happy marriage and consequently it was not a happy childhood for her either. Her stepmother was not interested in the slightest at any fears or concerns she had as she was growing up and the same applied with regards her schooling achievements and interests etc. Her father always seemed to be at a loss in knowing or understanding as well, so she felt she was on her own from a very young age.
She left school and got a job and some time later she joined a church. Not long after joining the church she made a decision to “seriously undertake” some Bible studies. One day her boss overheard her talking to a colleague about her studies and at the end of the day he called her into his office and he sacked her. Mrs Stone said to me that his decision to do that puzzled her then and it, “still does so now that I’m talking to you.” Up until that event he had often told her that he liked her work ethic and that she was an asset to him.
Mrs Stone told me she stayed with the church for a while but had to abandon continuous Bible studies. Early in the Second World War she got married. Less than a year later she developed tuberculosis and the doctors told her she had six months to live. When her husband found out about that, he said to her, “Well you’re no use to me anymore.” He left her and immediately took up with another woman.
Soon after that time Mrs Stone said she experienced her first lengthy stay in hospital. It was while she was in there that the doctors informed her she was pregnant. As the weeks rolled by she said she tried to get in touch with her father, who by this time was living in the country. When finally she found out where he lived she caught the train to visit him. Her step-mother was the only one at home when she called, who made her a cup of tea but told her to go as soon as she had finished it.
One evening while she was preparing a meal Mrs Stone got a phone call from a friend who rang to inform her that the step-mother had also contracted tuberculosis and was given six months to live. It turned out that the step-mother’s diagnosis was given just a few months after Mrs Stone was given hers. Her step-mother died at the end of the six month period she said, “but I was still going strong.” Then she started to cry as she told me her baby boy died four days after it was born.
In the late 1940’s she had a lung removed. She had also remarried and had another son. Sadly, by the time he was eighteen months old she was unable to look after him and so had to put him into a home. According to Mrs Stone, her second husband had numerous adulterous affairs, he was not around to support her or the baby, so putting him into the home was the only wise choice. The child got sick and even though the home was many miles away from her she told me she heard him crying out.
Mrs Stone also told me that one night as she was going off to sleep she saw her mother appear at the foot of her bed – “I was an inch away from touching her.” As a biblical Christian who knew something of the deceptions and counterfeits of the devil I personally didn’t/don’t believe that it truly was her mother, but I let it go by for the moment.
Although still a very sick lady at this time, circumstances gradually changed for her. She was later reunited with her son whom she said was a loving, caring child who understood his mother’s sickness and the reason for their dire poverty and so did his best to contribute to the financial income by doing odd jobs after school and at weekends. She spoke of the time when between them they had saved enough money to buy him a new suit. How proud he was of his suit and how proud she was of her son.
One day he got up on the roof of their house. He fell off that roof, broke his neck and later died at sixteen years of age.
She cried a couple of times in the two to three hours I was with her and she cried again when I told her that although I had no idea why she had to endure so much suffering in her life, God always had His hand upon her and her children. I then explained the reason for our meeting at that festival – it was that Jesus Christ was now going to reveal Himself to her and all she needed to do was believe that by faith, as we prayed. I said to Mrs Stone that she once had honoured God by her intentions to study His word, but now, regardless of her intentions, He was going to honour her with the gift of eternal life.
I visited this lady four more times over the following few months and she continued to share parts of her life with me. In that time I continued to be used of God to draw her closer to Him. The last time I called however, I found her door open with the television on, but she was not around. I waited twenty minutes, left a note and the phone number of our church for her to contact us if needed.
Mrs Stone did ring some time later to say the local council were relocating her to another place in the next suburb. On visiting her new address I failed to find her at home. I never saw her again. “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39.