A week ago today, on September 11, 2012, one of the greatest women I've ever known passed into eternal life. 
Had she survived until tomorrow, September 19, 2012—her 100th birthday—she might well have appeared on national television, on the Today show. As it is, the death of Mary Elizabeth Richert—the woman I had the privilege of calling Grandma—was noted in the Grand Haven Tribune and a few places online, which, in the end, was all she would have wanted.
For Grandma had a humility that was supernatural, and I'm not speaking here in hyperbole, but in the spiritual reality of grace. Of all the people I have known in my life, I can think of very few for whom the Christian Faith was so much a part of their very being. If Grandma ever struggled with her faith, she never showed it. A Missouri Synod Lutheran, she simply believed, with every breath and every beat of her heart—and, it seems, she always had.
A faith that deep and abiding and essential did not need to be expressed in words, and Grandma was not one to preach. It was expressed in the family she raised and the house she kept and the food she made in the kitchen of that house for generation upon generation of that family—six generations, in fact, as of August, a milestone few families ever reach. A good wife, a good mother, a good grandmother, a good neighbor, a good friend—all were the fruit of her life in Christ, with Whom she had died at her baptism and in Whom she will rise again at the Resurrection of the Dead.
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbour as thyself" (Luke 10:27). In her final days, her strength sapped by a stroke that had taken her from the home she and my grandpa had built, she used all her strength to speak to the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren who gathered at her bedside—a few words here and there, that comforted those to whom they were directed. Yet three or four days after her stroke, when her pastor came to visit and to lead us all in the Lord's Prayer, every word rose from the depths of her breast, clear and strong and filled with faith and love.
She was ready, as she always had been, to embrace the Lamb of God, Who had taken away her sins and granted her life eternal. May we all be blessed with a faith so great, so powerful, that it becomes such a part of our lives that others cannot imagine or remember us without that faith.
"And he said to her: Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole" (Mark 5:34). May Christ someday be able to say that of each one of us. It's what Grandma would have wanted.
Eternal memory. Eternal memory. May God grant Mary Elizabeth Richert blessed repose and eternal memory.
(Mary Elizabeth Richert. Photo © Scott P. Richert)
She is lovely. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing her with us Scott. She is a true inspiration.
Beautiful.
May she find peace in the arms of our Lord
May God grant Mary Elizabeth Richert blessed repose and eternal memory.
Thank you for sharing your deep feelings ,your grandma was,is, a great inspiration to all the people who knew her and for all of us who are meeting her today, through your beautiful words, coming from a loving and grateful heart.she is alive in you,we recognize her contribution and we are thankful.
MARY ELIZABETH RICHERT ;REST IN PEACE
Looks like you missed one…
http://meant2write.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/my-gram/
What a very sweet story.
Your grandmother sounds like a very special lady! And how Blessed
you were to have had her for so long! She is in Christ’s embrace now.
Thank you, everyone, for your kind words.
And thank you, Quinn, for posting the link to my dear cousin’s piece. I should note that I hadn’t missed it; it was simply outside the contrast I was attempting to draw (between the national media exposure of the Today show and the very local Grand Haven Tribune and the local funeral home). Megan and many other of Grandma’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even great-great-grandchildren, as well as various other relatives, have beautifully expressed their love for Grandma and what she meant to all of us through Facebook and other online venues.
Thank you so much for sharing about this great Lady. Your Grandma has been a God Fearing Person. I am so glad to read about her. Today it has truly up lifted me more to Christ. Thank you. Let me also try to be the best.
So much to learn from this Lady where faith is concerned. Great. i wish to be like her.
Good mother to follow her footstep.
Scott – what a blessing for you and all your family to have such a wonderful woman in your lives. How inspiring she must have been – I pray my faith is that strong one day. Peace to you.
She is amazing…My Mom is 90. I am sorry for your loss and, I know you will miss her.
My condolences to you, your family and friends for your loss. My mother has lived her life in the very same vein as your Grandma. She is the anchor of my family. God Blesses all but special consideration, I believe, is granted to those that touch so many lives with faith and example of the Power of Gods love working through them.
Amen
What a beautiful person, thank you for sharing with us!!! May her soul and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.Amen.
Mary Elizabeth Richert leaves behind a blessed treasure of memories for you Scott, your family and for all of us. Even in your grief, I am sure you are in spiritual joy, that she received from God Almighty, such a special gift on her 100th birthday – to be in His Bosom, in His Kingdom in heaven with Him in life eternal, with everlasting love, peace and joy!
My family is with you in prayers and may the soul of your Great Grandmother rest in peace and all the souls of the faithful departed. Amen.