One little girl was overheard praying, "Dear God, are boys better than girls? I know you are one, but try to be fair."
God was fair and is fair. And God must have chuckled at that little girl saying: God was a He. Zelma would have loved that story because she was a geat laugh-ter.
Today at 2:00 her service will be held at the Wise Baptist Church, Wise, Virginia. I wish I could have been there just to see the place that shaped much of who she was. I would have liked to meet her family--a least those that are left. Sitting on those front pews will be her children and then two sisters and three brothers. Zelma was the 13th of fourteen children.
I knew her when her life was in full bloom. Married to Pat, she was a Hospice Chaplain in Birmingham for eighteen years. I wonder how many families she touched. If anybody ever doubted the gifts of women preachers--they had not met Zelma Pattillo. After her retirement she and Pat settled in Birmingham and joined our church. This is when I really got to know Zelma. The few times I heard her preach she opened up her heart and told us stories of who had helped shape her life. My, my she could preach! I told her once that I wanted her to speak at my funeral. But that was not to be. We talked often and emailed much. She struggled with should she move back to Wise or stay in Birmingham. Wise won out. So her life had come full circle she came home to where she started--surrounded by those she loved overlooking mountains, tall trees and she added: "a few nuts."
After she left Wise the door opened and the doors just kept opening. Wherever she went she made her mark at a time when opportunities for women were often meagre. From that school in Wise where she sat in a class with grades one to five, she finished the University with a triple major: math and physics and history. She was offered a full scholarship to work on a PHD but she was not altogether sure that was the path she wanted to take. Her journey reminds me of those wonderful words of Robert Frost: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.""
And what a difference that road made. After several jobs she found her way to the Baptist Seminary in Louisville. When she graduated she was offered a job in Clemson by Charles Arrington the warm and wise Pastor of the First Baptist Church. But she heard another voice and it led her back to Louisville Seminary and a guy named Pat. They were married for 48 years. They had two children whom they dearly loved: Stephen and Laura.
She was ordained to the ministry at the Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville. Few women were ordained in that day. She served on the staff of several distinguished churches but her great work began in 1988 when she became a Hospice Chaplain in Birmingham. For eighteen years she ministered to countless numbers of families and before she retired she was Coordinator of a team of 12 chaplains.
To understand a person the facts do not tell much of the story--but underneath the facts where the heartbeat truly resides she really discovered that God really is fair--even with girls. And so did we.
Thank God for giving us Zelma. If I was standing at that graveside this afternoon in Wise,Virginia this is the blessaing I would give her:
"Into paradise may the angels lead dear Zelma, at her coming may the martyrs take her up into eternal rest, and may the chorus of angels lead her to that holy city, and the place of perpetual light. Amen."
--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com
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