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Aunt Norie’s Sewing Room

By Eleanor Mckee - | Nov 11, 2009

God’s special angels are among us at all times. He called one such angel home early Nov. 2. Our beloved Bernice Morney was, to all of us, one such person. A neighbor said “her smile and cheery greeting each morning could set your day for you, could somehow make your day so much brighter.”

Well-known for her volunteer hours, like 22 years at the nursing home (and she was still going each day), she’d say, “Some of them never have anyone coming to see them, families have forgotten them.”

At one of her several 90th birthday parties just a year ago in August, she was overheard to say, “I’ve only been in the hospital overnight one time in all these years.”

One clue to her wonderful personality I’ve always felt was her ever-ready, even contagious, laughter.

I moved to Tonganoxie 16 years ago. She, my next-door neighbor, was the first to welcome me and offer to help in any way she could. Her sincerity, warmth and friendliness made me feel so welcome. What a big, friendly, loving heart she had.

So near and dear to so many, so quick to see someone’s need, to see someone’s loneliness, to see someone hurting, and ready to lend that helping hand.

Yet she felt so alone herself at times. She had often said, with a bit of sadness in her, “they are all gone now (her family, her siblings), I’m the last one.” She was the youngest of a large family.

Six years ago our neighbor, Clarence Zacharias, made it (after resting awhile as he got out of his pick-up with his sack of groceries) to his patio, where he sat down on a lawn chair, not able to make it inside. They found him two or three hours later.

“He died quietly there,” Bernice said, adding, “where they could find him.” Then she said, “Think, Eleanor, five more minutes and he could have fallen and laid on the floor for days.”

She added, “what a beautiful way to go.” She hurt again just recently when a neighbor was found after two days.

We all know now this beautiful soul knew, as she quickly made her way outdoors Monday morning to her patio bench, that her savior had beckoned her there to meet him where she would be found. He had heard her prayers and called her there to meet him, and as my dear Mother would say, Bernice will have many stars in her crown.

Pray for all those dear to you.