Magnificent Boo Boo

Lora Ruthe (Thompson) Jackson was born Oct. 29, 1920, the eldest daughter of John Lyle and Florence (Ector) Thompson, one of four girls and a boy who died in infancy. As the oldest, she was often called upon to do some parenting as a youngster. She described the year when she was 12 or 13 that her working parents asked her to be in charge of Christmas gifts for all the kids. She was given a budget and told where to hide everything. (Surely this was the beginning of her role as the Christmas Fairy for so many years!)

Life wasn't easy. The Great Depression hit her family hard. Struggling family members would often come to live with them. One of her sisters went to live with relatives in East Texas for a while. She remembered delivering payments to the loan sharks in Dallas so they wouldn't give her daddy a hard time for being late. But there were wonderful times, too. Imagine living in a household with four very lively girls! Ruthe, Mary, Doris, and Laura laughed and danced and made the most of what they had.

As she grew into adulthood during the thick of World War II, Boo Boo experienced the joy of motherhood alongside the grief of broken relationship. As a single mom, she worked as executive secretary to the night shift manager at North American Aviation, known for her typing skills (>100 words per minute on a manual typewriter) and her creative response to the privations of war (when her requisition for pencils was turned down, she re-worked the request with the description "wood-encased lead cylinders" and was approved).

Vernon and Ruthe Jackson on the tarmac at North American with a P-51 Mustang.

At the plant, she caught the eye of a handsome fella supervising sheet metal work on the line. He eventually proposed in the parking lot after shift one night; they woke her parents up from a sound night's sleep and found a Justice of the Peace to make it official. Thus began the love story between Vernon and Ruthe that lasted for so many years. One time on the phone, Bun Bun said, "She's crazy about me." Boo Boo replied, "I'm crazy when he's about me." That pretty much sums it up!

Boo Boo was a modern woman. She worked outside of the home all of her life and was an entrepreneur, both in the sign business with Uncle Ernie, and as partner in her husband's vending business. Her gifts in organization and public speaking propelled her to leadership roles in local and national PTA, Keep Texas Beautiful, and Dallas County School Board. Her ultimate public service was to the City of Grand Prairie, where she served for a combined 28 years as a member of the city council, with many of those years working as Mayor Pro Tem. She was still in office at her death Aug. 9, 2013 at age 92!

However, these aren't the things I'm thinking of most today. I'm thinking of the time she was in Austin for a meeting and decided to surprise us with a visit - she came down to school and took us out for the afternoon for fun. Riding through the Robo car wash for entertainment. Going to Cicero's or Kip's for hot fudge sundaes. Playing board games like Monopoly or Pollyanna (she was so patient!). Enjoying our favorite foods when we came to visit, because she always stocked up - maraschino cherries, grape juice in tiny bottles, cheese in a can, etc. (Didn't your grandmother let you eat cherries from a jar with a spoon?) Trips to the warehouse for jewelry or candy. Going to feed the ducks with her special duck food. Tea parties with the girls at Luby's with the little teapot of hot tea.



I'm thinking about the way she used words to build people up. Today I've looked through birthday cards from her and Bun Bun to see the phrases and pet names she used for me: "Love to a princess of the Lord..."; "Darling 'Ren-Ren'..."; "lovely lady..."; "what an inspiration you are...!" The thing is, I was just one recipient of her encouraging largesse. We always loved seeing what would be written in cards to the girls, including "genius," "princess," "brilliant," or "magnificent." The way she rolled her R's and used unnecessary quote marks and multiple exclamation points for emphasis. Her funny sayings, like "bigger than Dick Tracy" and "big as Dallas," or "everybody ought to go to Sunday school." When we were out in public, it was obvious that she had that same way of knowing what people needed and giving that encouragement.

Boo Boo loved kids and was loved by them! As a child, I would sit next to her in church and she would put me in a trance by lightly tickling my arms. She always had our favorite Life Savers and gum in her purse. She would dance babies around with her special baby song (doot-doot, a-lotta-doot-doot-dooty), and she offered up her costume jewelry to keep little ones entertained. For years she taught Bible class at Burbank Gardens. She's one of my role models as a minister to children. Every grandchild and great-grandchild who came along was drawn into her love and bounty.

More than anything, Boo Boo loved God. She was the prayer warrior, the keeper of the prayer list. Rain or shine, sickness or health, she managed to be at prayer breakfast 99% of the Saturdays since it began, and this was just an extension of her daily life of prayer. This was her quiet ministry. There's no telling how many people all around the world have been blessed because of her faithful prayers, and that includes me.

Go big or go home. That might be one way to describe my grandmother's approach to life. She really lived! But I think I like this description better:

Extravagant in love. 

Extravagant in life. 

Extravagant in faith.

Rest in peace, Boo Boo. I will miss you so much...but I know you'll have everything  organized when we join you and Mr. Jackson in heaven.

Boo Boo with all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Christmas 2012

The fellowship of the garden

The strains of Psalm 22 quietly sung by the choir –  "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" – began the soundtrack for the increasing darkness.  There was no more sunlight to illuminate the stained glass; the clergy changed from white robes to black; the lights were turned off one by one as the altar was stripped of all decorations and the cross removed.  The priests slowly and deliberately washed the altar to prepare it for Good Friday, and a crown of thorns was laid in the center.

Then almost all of the lights were extinguished, until only candlelight remained.  We slowly left the sanctuary, singing the haunting chant, "Stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray."  The shadows on our faces from the candlelight seemed like torch light in the Garden of Gethsemane.  After a final reading, we left the church in silence.
 
I couldn't help but think about that day for the disciples.  They woke up to a beautiful spring day, expecting to celebrate the Passover with their friends – a solemn enough reenactment in its own right – yet they had no clue of what was able to happen to them.  Jesus woke up to that same day, but he knew.  It staggers my imagination.

The garden is where the rubber hits the road in terms of fellowship.  It's the moment where the veil is lifted, where unbelievers see what we're made of.  Sometimes it's a moment of failure like the disciples experienced:  "Fellowship?  What fellowship?"  At other times, it is where the best of redeemed humankind is revealed.  Someone sits and holds the hands of the dying; another cleans a kitchen or brings food to their neighbor in distress.  Some wait with Jesus, watching and battling in prayer for the soul of one who has wandered from the fold.  In darkness, in distress, in disappointment, in death – in these times, the fellowship of the garden comes alongside.

This is fellowship both given and received.  As a young person, I simply had no idea.  It wasn't until I faced my first true crisis that I understood what it meant to be cradled and cared for, to be loved with the same love Christ had for the caring one. And though I would never wish tragedy on anyone, the garden of suffering is where Christ in his fullness is revealed through His people.

The closing prayer of Maundy Thursday captures my hopes and prayer for me and for you:

Holy God, source of all love, on the night of his betrayal Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment: Love one another.  By your Holy Spirit write this commandment in our hearts through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  And now let your servants go in peace, to watch and wait with the Lord Jesus, in prayer and divine affection, in silence and endurance.  May God's blessing abide with you, through the darkness this night and into the glory of the dawning of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

This is the third in a series of three reflections on Maundy Thursday.