This is about Zella Pillow. REAL NAME! When I came to pastor BeNo Baptist Church (NOT the real name), Ms Pillow was 95 years old, and sharp as a tack. I LOVE older people who are sharp! And I instantly remembered her name, because...
A) It was unusual
2) she wore a hat to Church, and it looked like... well... a "pillow"!!!!

As I got to know her, she became a very dear friend. Delightful person, always pleasant, always "up". I loved to hear her talk about things "back then", before the invention of so many things without which we think we cannot live!

When she turned 99, and was still "sharp" and in fairly good health, I began to think "WE (the Church) need to have a really big Birthday Party for Ms Pillow AT THE CHURCH! I'm not so good at "planning ahead", but this would be the exception!

We were in the process of planning a new fellowship hall, and had accepted bids. As we looked at the timeline, I said "If all goes as planned, we will not quite be "finished" with the fellowship hall when Ms Pillow turns 100, but we'll be "dried in" and should be able to have her Birthday Party as the FIRST BIG EVENT in our new facility! We began to plan accordingly.

When it came time for "ground breaking", we did that after a Sunday Morning Church service, and I stood next to Ms. Pillow, a shovel in her hands, and she turned over the first load of dirt! She was eating this up! And we were having a ball watching her!

Although I hadn't really planned it this way, the EFFECT of the idea of having Ms. Pillow's Birthday Party in the newly completed Fellowship Hall REALLY inspired the Church. We contracted the concrete and metal building and insulation... "the shell" to an outside firm, but were doing the "build out" ourselves. We had a number of good carpenters in the Church, I love carpentry work, and we had lots of able-bodied men who would pitch in "wherever". The "battle cry" became "we HAVE to get that done, or it won't be ready for Ms. Pillow's party". We spent lots of weekends and weeknights framing, running conduit, plumbing, sheetrocking... some GREAT times of fellowship!

About "5 months out", another idea hit me! Why don't we have LOTS of birthday cards for her! I encouraged people to email friends and get the word out. Over the next few months, Birthday Cards were coming in from Ireland, the Czech Republic, China... it was getting exciting!

The work on the Fellowhsip Hall was going well, and, although not "complete", it was PLENTY ready for Ms. Pillow's party. The ladies had trimmed out the Kitchen, and were excited to make this "the big event".

We planned the party for "the First Sunday in March". Her Birthday was the next day, so we were "one day early". Prior to the morning service, I had asked Ms. Pillow (and her family) about her favorite hymns, her favorite Scripture, her favorite sermon. I had preached a sermon called "Jesus the Garbage Man". (Long story, I'll write about that another time, but suffice it to say that Jesus is MORE than just the garbage man who comes along to clean up our messes... That's the point of the sermon) She thought "The Garbage Sermon" was "tops".

On THE BIG DAY, all of the hymns we sang were Ms. Pillow's favorites. But, Just before I preached "Jesus the Garbage Man", I looked at Ms. Pillow, and asked... "Ms. Pillow, I know it's been a while, but I have a special request to ask of you". Ever the gracious lady, she nodded and asked, "what is it". And I asked, "Would you please come and play something for us on the piano?" She tried to brush it off, but a number of people in the congregation chimed in, and encouraged her, and I stepped down from the platform and walked over to her and escorted her to the piano. She fussed a bit about "it's been AGES since I've played... ", but she finally took her position on the piano bench and surveyed the keyboard.

At first, it was almost embarassing. Everybody was gracious, but the sounds coming from the piano were more consistent with "piano banging" than playing. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. But, wait... I recognized that measure... and now there's a pattern... and NOW I recognize the HYMN..... and even though it took a little bit to "get going", the next thing you knew, she was playing "Stand up, Stand up for Jesus..." And everybody did! And since we were already standing, we began to clap, and you'd have to call that a standing ovation, yes?

Then I presented her with 2 dozen roses, a plaque honoring ONE HUNDRED YEARS of life... I read an article about the list of things that simply did not exist "100 years ago", and some major world events that happened IN HER LIFETIME!!! Then the basket. The ladies had fixed up a bushel-sized basket with some pretty ribbons and "fluff", and full of over FOUR HUNDRED BIRTHDAY CARDS from all over the world.

She returned to her seat, I preached, and all in all it was a GRAND TIME! At the conclusion of the service, everybody was instructed to go to the NEW Fellowship Hall, where we would enjoy a good old fashioned "dinner on the grounds" followed by some birthday cake and ice cream.

She said over and over... "this is the happiest day of my life"... "this is the grandest thing that's ever happened to me"... "I can't believe my Church went through all this fuss"...

I believe she must have made a concerted effort to see her "Hundredth Birthday", because after that, she seemed to go "downhill". Just a few months later, I received a call that she was in the hospital. She had caught a cold, and they were concerned it had turned into pneumonia. I went to the hospital, and was directed to the ICU. When I asked for Ms. Pillow, the Charge Nurse gave me "that look", and asked very solemnly... "are you her Pastor?" I said "I am"... then i asked ... "but she's not here anymore, is she". And the nurse said, "no sir.. . she went to sleep a few hours ago, and woke up on the other side".

I walked into her room, and there lay the body that, for over ONE HUNDRED YEARS, contained the person we knew as "Ms. Pillow". I held her hand and just stood there a few minutes thinking about all the wonderful times we'd had. I remembered the first time I stopped by her house to pick her up for a special service at Church, and she got in my car, and as we were heading down the driveway, she looked at me and said, "Now, you seem like a very fine man... just who exactly ARE you?" (She's IN MY CAR, and we're DRIVING AWAY, and she asks who i am) And I smiled and said, "I'm your pastor, Ms. Pillow" and she laughed and said, "Oh that's right - You're Brother Billy!"

It was a CELEBRATION Funeral... a FINE Christian Lady who had lived DECADES for Christ, and "went to sleep to wake up with Jesus". One of the EASIEST Funeral services I've ever conducted.

Her grandson, a Houston Doctor, stopped by my office a few weeks later to visit me at the Church Office. He was, obviously, quite moved by what the Church had done. And he told me, "I just want you to know, than Granny Zella had us put that basket of Birthday Cards by her reclining chair, and she opened ONE card in the morning, ONE card after lunch, and ONE card before she went to bed. There are still hundreds of cards she's never even opened. But EVERY DAY, she would say "I can't believe there are THAT MANY PEOPLE who knew it was my Birthday".

I still think about how that Charge Nurse informed me of her passing... "she went to sleep a few hours ago, and woke up on the other side".