Betsy B Gladish: My Memorial -- Stephen B Gladish
I first knew and loved Betsy as my precious wife, innocent and adorable, yearning to be inseparable. Then I knew and loved Betsy as a precious mother, totally devoted to our children succeeding in every phase of their lives. Later I knew and loved Betsy as a divinely inspired grandmother filled with God’s unconditional love. God blessed me mightily with Betsy’s love. Betsy and I were
blessed by our marriage of fifty-five years.
In the first two months of the new year 2021, we have been blessed by the scores, even countless tributes to Betsy and her uniquely divine personality. These tributes and praise will live on forever, way past the rest of this year. Next year to be sure I will share other blessings of having Betsy in my life.
Today, this month and year, I want to devote this memorial to Betsy’s expression of faith. The most important aspect of this memorial is to honor Betsy for her lifetime devotion to God and to Sunrise Chapel. Rev Frank Rose and Louise Rose moved out to Tucson in 1982. Betsy and I moved out here in 1984. We were so happy to become part of Frank’s flock.
When Spiritual Growth Groups began in 1988, she was one of the first to sign up. When Arizona Mountain Camp was established, she was the first to step up and become the Camp Director with the longest service. When Women’s Group was formed, she was one of the first and the longest leaders—for the rest of her life. With all the Spiritual Growth Groups sprouting up year after year, Frank Rose could count on Betsy’s enthusiasm and magnetic personality to gather people in to
participate. When Sunrise Chapel needed donations, she measurably increased ours as needed.
At each Annual and Semi-Annual Meeting, she was always there, her support of new plans and programs was eminently visible, and any reports she may have had were always positively received. Without knowing it, she stepped in as a leader in the congregation. Every Sunday when we had guests and visitors arrive at Sunrise Chapel, they and we always remember Betsy being the first to extend the warmth of her love through greetings and welcome.
I honor Betsy for pledging her life to Sunrise Chapel, to Rev Frank Rose and to his unprecedented vision and evolvement of Sunrise Chapel. Betsy and I looked up to Frank and Louise Rose as the models for the highest level of an ideal marriage. Because they were alike in many ways, it was only natural that Betsy would develop a close and inspired relationship with Louise on many Sunrise Chapel Programs. Louise’s third level of service, beyond her exceptional
marriage, and the raising of a family full of promising talents, was her exclusive devotion to Sunrise Chapel and to every daily task she saw to do. Her children raised, Louise became a, “stay-at-church-Mom,” not a, “stay-at-home-Mom.”
I honor Betsy in all to which she put her hand and mind. Throughout four decades, I honor Sunrise Chapel for all it meant to her. And all it meant to me. I honor Sunrise Chapel, its pastors, and all its constituents down through the years, for all the myriad blessings and enrichment they brought to all members and guests of Sunrise Chapel, including Betsy and me. Betsy had the most seniority in the ranks of highly respected secondary leaders of Sunrise Chapel. For thirty-seven
years she served God and Sunrise Chapel by continuing her dedication and service through three pastors and leaders of Sunrise Chapel: the Rev Frank Rose, the Rev Glenn Alden, and the Rev Nathan Gladish. She did this in addition to being the best Stay-at-Home Mom for all four kids. And even during her years as Activities Director at a highly respected Retirement Community, she exhibited the same golden traits, while at the same time, she fulfilled all her responsibilities at Sunrise Chapel.
Every person, giving or sending final thoughts directed toward Betsy during or after her Memorial Service, focused primarily on the most beloved traits or gifts of God she had polished to perfection: always loving and channeling God’s love to all she met and worked with. Always thoughtful, looking for new ways to think , to act, and to help Sunrise Chapel’s growth and happiness, but just as focused on the growth and happiness of everybody to whom she came into contact.
She was consistently accepting and positive, looking for ways to welcome new growth. Her middle name was Gratitude. She lived grateful every day. She taught grateful every day, despite being in mounting continual pain with psoriatic arthritis since her college years. In direct contrast to me, she never complained. But I immediately intend to honor Betsy’s life by paying it forward, by becoming much more like her, and by carrying high her banner of love and gratitude.
Betsy learned the traits Jehovah God taught Moses. He was humble and submissive. Not in the beginning. He killed an Egyptian in a fit of anger. But God worked with him. To become our truly first Biblical leader, Moses had to have more than courage. And with God’s leadership, he developed divine qualities the rest of his life. In addition to being humble and submissive to God, he became one to never take offense, always one to answer mildly, despite fierce opposition. In time
we read, “Moses was by far the meekest of all the men on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3).
Betsy stands tall in the shadow of Moses. She also had great courage despite physical challenges and consequences. She like me knew and loved the Beatitudes. For example, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” We learned that we cannot draw close to God without humility. And there is another Biblical leader inspirational for Betsy. The Prophet Samuel (Samuel 3:10-18), in the very beginning of his calling. When for the third time, God called him in the
evening and finally got his attention, Samuel replied, “Speak, for thy servant is listening….” The next morning Eli the Senior Prophet, the mouthpiece of God, called him and said, “Samuel, my son.” And Samuel answered Eli and God, “Here I am,” with the implication, “Send me.”
Betsy’s answer, as a lifetime member of Sunrise Chapel, was always the same. “Here I am, God. Send me.” And as she took her last breath and left us, these were the last words she may have heard, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will appoint you over many things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord” (Matthew 25:23).
Stephen Gladish February 16, 2021
