Winifred Joyce Jackson

It’s difficult to write a short story about a life that was fully lived over a period of 94 years. My “Mom” was born in 1918 in Three Brooks, Newfoundland, Canada.

The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-19 killed between 20 and 40 million people worldwide, making it one of the largest and most destructive outbreaks of infectious disease in recorded history. It first appeared in Newfoundland and Labrador in September 1918 and killed more than 600 people in less than five months.

Perhaps my mother and her family survived because they were a sturdy, sea faring group who earned their living sailing on whaling ships. They experienced much trouble and heartache trying to make ends meet during a very poor time in their province. More heartache came as a result of my grandmother (a born-again Christian) dying of pneumonia following the birth of her fourth child. My mother, age five, her eight year old brother and three year old sister watched their mother’s coffin being carried up a snowy hill to be set aside until the frozen earth softened enough to allow her burial. She vividly remembered that scene for almost 90 years until the day she died yesterday. Sad as that may seem, the Lord used my grandmother’s death to eventually cause all three of those children to realize their lost spiritual condition and to fall into the loving arms of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and comfort. As recorded by my mother in her Bible, “I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior on May 11, 1926”. Her baby brother died at four months old which added to the grief.

The story of her coming to America, finding the mate that God had for her is one for another time. Her father later remarried and five more children were added to the family. Mom met and married George Willie Jackson on May 27, 1939. My older brother was born in 1941, I in 1943 and my younger brother in 1956. Mom suffered more sadness at the sudden loss of her beloved husband in 1972 after 32 years of marriage.

Over her lifetime Mom had cooked for a number of years at Camp Wonderland, a summer camp for inner city children. She held jobs as a seamstress for a casket company and as a quality control inspector for a circuit board manufacturing company. Later in life at the age of 72, she served with New Tribes Mission in Colombia, South America for two years cooking for their school for missionary’s children. She also taught a junior girl’s Sunday School class.

Mom’s love for the Lord deepened every day. Few people walked away from her without hearing her testimony and being encouraged to accept Christ as their Savior. As a matter of fact as she was slipping in and out of a coma two nights before she died, she was lovingly asking her nurses if they knew Jesus as their Savior. One particular day as she was walking her road to glory I asked her if she was afraid. With a sideward’s glance and a twinkle in her eye she said, “No, why should I be afraid, He is right here with me!”

She was a great prayer warrior and Bible student. She had committed to memory Psalm 1, 24, 91, (her favorite) 100 and 121 among others. Her Bible is tattered and held together with tape speaking loudly of the hours of joy and comfort that the Lord provided through His living Word.

Mom lived with us for twenty-five years and kept her own apartment until a month ago when she fell braking six ribs and discovering terminal cancer. We never once heard a complaint about pain or suffering. Thank you, Peg, for loving and cherishing her all of that time. You were truly a “Ruth” to my mother.

Oh, by the way, Mom has three children, ten grandchildren, thirty-two great grandchildren, and eighteen great great grandchildren many of which know Christ as their Savior.

And now the rest of the story …….she is united with her dear mother and little brother, her loving husband and son, my brother Jim, who died in April of this year, but most importantly she is “Face to Face with Christ Her Savior”. Mom, we envy you, but we’ll see you soon in that “Meeting in the Air”.

She was predeceased by her husband George W. Jackson, son James R. Jackson, brothers Reginald, Arthur and Ronald Stanford and sister Jessie Taylor. Winnie is survived by two children: Robert and his wife Margaret of Taylors, SC, Jay and his wife Faith of Linn Creek, MO, Daughter-in-law Sandra Jackson of Williamsport, PA. her surviving sister Emma Brauckmann and brothers Charles, Herbert and Walter Stanford.

1 John 3:1-3

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”