Colleen was a private person. She didn’t complain; instead, she would fix it. She always tried to make things better for the people, animals, or organizations that she cared about. Sometimes she would go overboard if it meant that she could fill a need by purchasing something. She found joy in providing items that others needed or wanted. She loved the CBA plays and loved helping Roshelle pull together props or costumes for them. As the Wherritt girls grew and were faced with new adventures and new household needs, school needs, or personal needs, they always found themselves saying “we need a . . .” fill in the blank, and they would always end it with “Grandma probably has it—call Grandma.” She also liked helping others anonymously. If a need was brought to her attention, especially around the holidays, she would figure out a way to supply it. She’s been there. . . on the giving side and on the needing side.
Because Colleen was such a private person, many of you probably don’t know how much she enjoyed working in her yard or taking care of the swimming pool. She always welcomed her kids and granddaughters and their friends over to her backyard to swim or cookout—especially Rita and the girls, because if they stayed long enough, Wayne would show up, too, and grill supper for everyone. You also probably don’t know about her love for animals. She wanted every animal to have a home or someone to care for it. Some of you in here are probably recipients of stray animals that she knew needed rescuing. She always fed the strays and made a warm home for them. During her illness, Denny continued to feed the stray cats and the resident opossum. She loved her horses and her house cats and spoiled them. The running joke with the family is that if they died, they wanted to come back as Colleen’s house cat. Her cats loved her too. Girl, her smallest calico, would spend all of her time on the hospital bed in the living room with Colleen, even until the very end.
I could stand here and tell you that Colleen was a polished, sharp dressed woman or that she had good taste in furnishings and décor. I could tell you that she loved the holidays and loved her family. I could tell you that she was determined and opinionated and liked to learn and discuss topics or events, but you know all of that. The most important thing that I can tell you about Colleen happened just 4 years ago. She asked and the Holy Spirit came into her life and everything changed. The things that she used to spend her time doing weren’t as important to her anymore. She was hungry for knowledge. Different knowledge this time. She was hungry for Jesus. She read the Bible, books about the Bible and took notes; she started listening to preachers online and watching sermons and studying basically everything she could get her hands on, and it all started making sense.
Colleen told Roshelle in January: “I’m amazed at how the Bible is everything ever that did happen and ever will happen and there’s nothing new. It’s all in this book [the Bible] if you can put it together properly.”
Colleen has always been a reader and a learner. Even in her last weeks when reading and learning and even lengthy conversation wasn’t really possible, she would say to the kids, “talk to me.” She still wanted to learn. Wayne would read through headlines he knew she would be interested in. Roshelle started searching for everything she could find about heaven and had been listening to Dr. Dixie Yoder’s videos about heaven. She shared with her mom what she had learned: in heaven we will still be learning the greater knowledge that we seek, but it’s much easier to do so because it’s easier to learn, to remember, and to understand. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that our learning will be fuller and more intensive—we will be not be making assumption or learning errors. It will all be truth and it will be clear. We won’t become omniscient like God and have all the answers when we get to heaven, like the world seems to believe, but we will continue to learn and study God’s truths. This made Colleen very happy and gave her more peace.
Right now, Colleen, as a child of God, has the ability to sit at the feet of Jesus and just soak up his presence and his truth. She is still learning.
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