How do I summarize sixty five years of a wonderful life in a nine minute reading? I can’t. But let me tell you what I can in this short writing, about my beautiful bride. Mary Margaret Christine Peters was born in 1958. She grew up, and was raised in Blytheville Arkansas, located Northwest of a small community named Tomato, Arkansas, where she was born. She was born to Robert Charles and Mary Kathleen Peters. Her mom was a homemaker and her Dad was a fireman for the Blytheville Fire Department. She grew up with three brothers, which is probably why she was so courageous. She often spoke about a foster child that was in their household while she was growing up. Her name was Tudie. Growing up, Mary’s family didn’t attend church regularly, but she would often go alone and enjoyed sunday school and services at First Baptist church in Blytheville. Mary was the second oldest sibling. She grew up in a modest home and lifestyle, but had what she needed. Her Dad died in October, 1974 when she was 15 years old, only a month before she turned 16. Sometime afterwards, she had to move to Tennessee in the middle of her Junior year of high school due to circumstances not of her liking. She moved there alone, and was welcomed and loved by her other family friends where she would meet the love of her life, graduate high school, get married and have a wonderful life.
Mary was not fancy, nor saw the need to impress anyone. She was very smart, kind, witty, and humble. She had much respect for the elderly, children were drawn to her because she knew how to communicate on their level. She was good at board games and would not cheat or lose on purpose so you could win. She graduated from Dyersburg High School in 1977 and received a scholarship to attend Dyersburg State Community College. She excelled in History and won an American History award and touted the fact that she had a great grandmother that lived during the civil war, that gave her a wealth of information of that time period. She enjoyed the school trips and especially the trip to Washington, D.C., where she would recall from time to time short stories of events that happened, and all the fun she had there. She loved a good time and was such a fun loving girl.
The first time we met, she was a delight, and different from any girl I had ever met. She just made you feel good. She was kinda laid back and a joy to be around. She liked blue jeans and blue jean shirts, flip flops. She was a great kisser too. I know! Her favorite movie was “It’s a Wonderful Life” She was fun to hang out with and had a caring attitude even at such a young age given the emotional abuse she endured as a child. I remember how she liked Barry Manilow, David Cassidy, Partridge Family and bubblegum rock. I was way on the other end of the scale, but we were still attracted to each other. She had an unusual collection of monkees, old costume jewelry and watches from her grandmother and family. She liked toe socks, sewing, and making quilts. When we first met and started dating, we made each other feel special. We started seeing each other often, going to church together, and were falling in love, and would get married in october of 1977. She chose to be kind and thoughtful, and was a wonderful individual. Our paths never crossed while I was attending High school because I left after the 10th grade. I got to know her in her senior year when I returned home. She read a lot then, and had a zillion books. We moved over the years with all those books, until we finally thinned them out later in the years. Mary also attended a vocational technical school where she advanced her knowledge with some business classes before college.
When she and I were first married, we attended Church of Christ before moving to Nashville in pursuit of job opportunities. While living there, Mary gave birth to our first child Melissa, in 1978. Circumstances would have us back in Dyersburg and she gave birth to our second child Candace, four years later, and then our son Bobby, fifteen months later. Somewhere close to our 12th year of marriage, in 1989, Mary began taking classes at college to pursue a degree in accounting. She wanted to work as an accountant. During that time she also did service to Developmental Education through college work study in the College Preparatory Studies Program. There, she helped several students that were just out of high school excel so they could move forward with their classes. She also worked in the Nursing department as an administration assistant. She loved teaching and working with the students. All of her college classes were attended on campus, vocational classes attended on campus, and working full time jobs were all done while raising three children. She also loved working with kids while she was attending high school, with the daycare. That was one of her greatest passions – working with children. As our children grew, she became involved in so much with them. She was just baptized into being a part of their growing lives. Girl Scouts was also a calling that she answered and was deeply invested in. She was a girl scout when she was young and continued until our girls grew out of it. She was a scout leader and a part of the Reelfoot Council for several years. She also helped boy scouts and coached softball and t-ball teams. She was artistic and enjoyed painting, sewing, quilting, baking, and she was also interested in Ancestry and found as much of her family as she could. She put together a ancestry book of both sides of my family and gifted several family members with copies one year.
We had moved a few times over the years, and each time we always enjoyed where we were. One of the last moves we made was to Longview, Texas in 2001. I had a job offer there from my brother and we decided to made the move. Our children were grown now, and Katie, our granddaughter would be in our care and become a part of our little family. Soon, two of our children and their families also moved to Texas and were near us, except for one of our daughters who remained in Tennessee. Nevertheless, again, we were mostly all together, kids and grandkids, enjoying life, even with my oldest brother Mike, and sister-in-law Jane, who were already living there and have left us since to eternity. Before we had moved, we had become part of a loving First Christian church family that were expanding as we were moving. Unfortunately, we did not stay faithful to the Lord during our ten year stay in Texas. However, after we moved back to Tennessee, we visited a couple of churches and decided to return to our First Christian church. Mary and Katie assisted in a young children’s class for a while and when things began to change there with leadership and etc, we stopped attending around 2016.
Prior to that, in 2014, we started our own online Etsy business, called Rustastic. Mary used her accounting skills from day one, tackling all of our accounting needs for this business. She also was not too proud, and when orders would become overwhelming, you could find her in the wood shop working right along beside me, dressed in work clothes and a smile, helping to get our orders filled and completed. She would always fit in where she was needed. It was her nature and love. From communicating with customers when I was in the shop, to printing shipping labels, to accounting, and helping load boxes into the car, I could count on her. We worked great together.
In 2018 we saw an opportunity to move to South Carolina. This would prove to be our last stop. We were planning to retire here for sure. We were close to the beach. We searched for a church home after moving here. We found one that we enjoyed working with, but it was a bit far for us and the ministries were too. We visited one where we live and began working and serving there. The First Church of God. Mary dove right in and took off where she was needed and where her talents lay. She became the children’s director and teacher with our church. She was having a wonderful time with these kids teaching them about Jesus. The classes were growing greatly from when she had taken on this role and she really enjoyed those that walked beside her for these kids. She and I invested time to update and remodel the children’s rooms according to her vision of what she wanted. She had plans for other rooms and the entire children’s wing also. Covid had slowed things down some, but we somehow came out of it ok and she was ready to get back to it. She had researched the curriculum and had lessons planned. Each week was an adventure with Wednesday’s Kids Blast, surprise bags, Bible lessons, and Sunday’s Bible classes. She tried to make sure things were done well for the children and loved them so much.
In 2021 Mary had started to have medical issues, but she persevered on through. VBS was a big hit and she wanted to be a part of it. By the late fall of 2021 her health was beginning to worsen with weight loss and other health issues. In January she began making doctors appointments, which led to some not so good news. After blood work and scans, it was looking like Mary would be diagnosed with Cancer. A biopsy in February, 2022 proved to be positive for cancer. She said she was not gonna let this steal her joy. She continued to work with the kids at church and all that she could do. She stayed positive throughout treatments, hospital stays, fatigue, nausea, and all other issues that come with treatment of cancer. I watched her the day she turned her office keys in resigning from children’s director and it broke her heart. She continued to attend church services as often as she could until the day she had to have hospice called. She hated leaving her family, and all those that loved her behind. She left peacefully surrounded by family. She loved life, and that’s what she had. A wonderful life.
Broadcasting Hope 