LifeDate Fall 2025 – Life … as We Age
by Diane Albers, President of Lutherans For Life
Do you have any special people in your life who only know that a tweet is the sound of a bird? Sometimes our society disparages the value of people because of their age, both the old and the young. Despite their grey hair and tech deficits, what have their experiences meant to you?
“So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come” (Psalm 71:18).
My grandma was married to an alcoholic fireman during the Great Depression, and they had four children. After Grandpa died of leukemia, Grandma found a job as a cook for the county jail. She was also a great seamstress and crafter. She helped me with my sewing and let me use her fancy machine. Grandma was a member of the Methodist church and a proud member of the Eastern Star, though as a child, I did not understand what that meant. Then in her seventies, she remarried! Unfortunately, her new husband died several years later. But Grandma lived into her eighties, sewing and crafting.
Grandma taught me to be strong and resolute and never give up. She taught me to use my gifts to enjoy life and to keep God in my life.
My dad was the son of German immigrants and lived on a farm on Church Road in Orchard Farm until they lost it during the depression. His parents sent him and his siblings to the one room school at Trinity, Orchard Farm, Missouri. (The church on Church Road!) Daddy was always disappointed that he was not able to go to high school, but he constantly studied so that he could advance in the Navy during WWII and at the Post Office where he worked most of his life. One of my memories is of watching Daddy study for his postal exams. My parents, in turn, sent my siblings and me to school at Immanuel, St. Charles, Missouri.
Daddy taught me that education is important and that faith is even more important! That is why I ended up in Lutheran colleges and became a Lutheran elementary teacher.
Jean Garton was an early mentor of mine when I first started in LFL. She was a storyteller who enjoyed making people laugh as they remembered her serious points. She had to be brave, in my opinion, to go through the lines of rather violent protesters to get to her speaking engagements in those early days. She also had to be brave and resolute to get pastors and laymen to listen to her. Through all of that, Jean continued to offer the Gospel to our sinful world that needed to hear that Jesus paid for every sin, even the sin of abortion.
I will never be a very good speaker, but I learned from Jean that God can use me as I am for His plans. I have never had to walk past protesters yelling at me, but in the early days when I taught a seminary wives’ class, there was a lot of controversy: I was a woman teaching and I was teaching a Bible class on a “political” subject. Jean taught me to put the Gospel in every presentation that I made, even to pastors.
Finally, there is my almost 94-year-old neighbor, Eva, a German immigrant who survived the bombing of Dresden. Mike cuts her grass and is her “tech guy.” She just told him that she’s ready to trade in her old desktop for a new laptop! We love having her as our neighbor.
Eva has taught me that you are never too young or too old to change and learn new things—and that working hard to care for your home and garden is a blessing. Her strong faith saw her through all that she endured during WWII and is an inspiration to me.
Now, I am the one with gray hair (or I would have it if not for my talented daughter-in-law). It is my duty to use the gifts and skills that God has given me and those that I have learned from my gray-haired mentors. My mentors and I did not start with gray hair. It came as a badge that says we have survived and thrived with God’s help in many situations. We want to encourage you to proclaim God’s power and might to the next generations—even if your hair is not gray, yet!