In the same year I crossed the half-century mark of my sojourn on earth, it occurred to me I had lived more of my life without my mother than I had with her. I was 25-years-old and in my second year of college when Nancy Jane Sage took her last breath. She fought breast cancer for five years before gaining a great victory.
My mother and I shared a close bond. We looked alike (Keely has inherited the Petty genes), thought alike, and were both the oldest children among our siblings. She was a woman of the past and the future all at once. She was, a school teacher who quit her job to become a stay-at-home mom, a farmer’s daughter in a family that grew all their own food, and a Christian who lived in the last years before the church splits of the 1950s and 60s.
Jane, as she was known, had a master’s degree in English and would only allow the occasional “ain’t” to go without correction. She taught high school English in Charlotte and had a young student by the name of Dave Owen. I learned recently she taught school for a couple of years in Blytheville, Arkansas before I was born. She moved there with her new husband and Air Force private Norman Sage. After 1966, Aaron, Joel, and I made up her classroom.
The biggest regret (of several) I have about my mother passing too early is she never got to meet Wendy, Keely, and Cole and vice versa. It still pains me to think of what I put her through with my drug and alcohol use. Out of that house of horrors did come some positive notes. My drug treatment in 1984 led to her introduction to Al-Anon and more control of her own happiness. Thank you Lord for my sobriety and that she got to see it and my early development as a Christian.
Of all the things I wish I could pick my mom’s brain about today, Christianity is at the top. I would love to have her perspective on the “anti vs the liberals” issues, because she lived through them. Mom graduated from David Lipscomb College in the 1950’s just as views about church support of institutions were hardening. In 1962, the congregation where her family attended, split and a preacher named Olin Kern helped organize a non-institutional group known as Central Church of Christ in Charlotte1. I would love to hear her thoughts on where we are today as a movement. One of my proudest moments in life came after preaching a sermon on I John 1:5-10 and the nature of God’s grace. My aunt Kathy Douthitt, mom’s youngest sister, came up to me and said Jane held the same view. The word of God is an eternal fountain of truth!
My mom’s Christianity was vibrant and not contained to the church house. She loved God and her neighbor. She fought for sex education in our schools because our county had the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the country. She took it personally when 12 to 15-year-old girls got pregnant and she was determined to make a change for the better. Her last job was as a counselor at the vocational-technical school in Dickson. She loved helping people start a career to better their lives.
Certainly, I am a little biased in my assessment of my mother’s virtues, but you are welcome to ask any who knew her, they will tell you the same. My mother’s calm assurance of faith as she faced certain death lives with me to this day. Brother Kern read Proverbs chapter 31 at her funeral without a hint of irony. No mirror is without flaws, but Nancy Jane’s reflected the light of Jesus faithfully and true.
Forgive the therapy session. It is Mother’s Day. Love and appreciate your mom today. Live a life that will make her proud. And make reservations to join her in that mansion some day.
Leave a Reply