(From “A Cloud of Witnesses”)
Sister Brenda was the wife of Deacon Proctor. I always loved to hear her rich melodious prayers, and the way she clapped her hands as she prayed on her knees. She had a beautiful glow about her face, and fiery eyes.
She composed her own spiritual music, and I learned many of her songs. She and her husband would say that Brenda had a terrible speech impediment before she became a believer, and she used to be ashamed to talk to people. But she said when she was reading about Moses and his fear of speaking, the Spirit assured her that He would help her. I couldn’t tell that she had ever had a problem, but the deacon says she stuttered badly at one time.
One day in church, Sister Brenda was testifying and said, “Sometimes when I ask people if they are saved, they tell me they are just to keep me from bothering them anymore. So now when they say that, I ask them what they were saved from. If they can’t answer that, they probably aren’t saved. A person who is truly saved is always anxious to tell people what God delivered them from.”
Once Sister Brenda approached me at church and said, “I dreamed about you last night. You were climbing up a ladder, and I was right behind you.”
“Wow, that’s a really good dream,” I said. “I hope you haven’t had any dreams about us falling into a pit or anything.”
She laughed and shook her head, saying, “Sister Olive, I would’ve called you if I had a dream like that, and I would’ve said, ‘We need to shape up and get back on track.”
Sister Brenda died before I had finished writing about her. It’s ironical that she reached the top of that ladder ahead of me, and I am still trying not to lose my balance or fall down.
She passed away suddenly one Sunday morning in June. I was in Tennessee at the time, and Elder Foster called to tell me the bad news. He said, “As I was driving into the parking lot, I heard sirens and saw the ambulances pulling up,” he said. “I thought it was one of the older members who had been having health problems, but as I went in, I saw Sister Brenda on the floor in front of the altar and the paramedics working hard trying to revive her. They finally put her on the stretcher and took her in the ambulance, and she died at the hospital the next day.” Sister Brenda was among the youngest women in our church, so it was a terrible blow to all of us.
Deacon Proctor lost his mother several weeks after losing his wife, and is still holding on by faith and inner strength. Ella Mae tells me that she finds it almost unbearable for her to hear anyone else sing Sister Brenda’s favorite song in church. I can still hear it right now in my mind:
Just another day that the Lord has kept me
Just another day that the Lord has kept me
He has kept me from all evil
And my mind stayed on Jesus.
Just another day that the Lord has kept me
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