Pat Yetter Graveside Service - 09/17/21
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We gather this morning to remember and celebrate the life of Pat Yetter. And we also want to remind ourselves of the confident hope that this is not the end for Pat, but really, only the beginning.
In the Bible we read,
13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. 15 And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. 16 And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
Jesus declared,
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though they die.”
With this promise, Let's pray together,
O Lord, we gather in this quiet place to lay to rest the ashes of Pat Yetter. It is a sad place because we must say goodbye.
Help us Lord, to see this also as a place of hope, and faith, and expectation. Help us to see beyond the loss to the glory of the life that you hold out to all who will put their trust in you.
Help us to remember Pat’s life with gratitude. And to remind ourselves again of those qualities which we aspire to develop in our own lives. Help us also to embrace the faith she had, that we see this day not as a day of the ending of Pat’s life, but as a beginning to that life that goes on forever. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pat Yetter was a woman who quietly impacted hundreds of young lives. She was not a woman who sought recognition. She was happy to serve in the shadows.
In fact, she was serving as a waitress in the Travelers Inn when she met Wayne. He was smitten. Eventually they were married on October 10, 1959.
Wayne and Pat (and then later Candy) traveled often to Ford promotional events. They went to Kansas City Chief games or Cardinal games and would often come home with a special vehicle they could sell when they returned home.
Pat didn’t have any desire to fly. When Wayne won a trip to the Bahama’s she decided she would risk it. They arrived at their beautiful resort. They decided they really were not interested in dining with all the richly decked out people, so they went out purchased some stuff for sandwiches and enjoyed their time in the Bahama’s playing Canasta and eating bologna sandwiches in their room.
When Wayne won another trip to the Bahama’s, Candy went in their place with Grandma. If I understand the story . . . they did not remain in their room!
Pat loved her flowers. She also loved to cook. Rossi remembers her amazing fried pancakes that were as big as the frying pan. She also made Chocolate Lush and was known for her party mix. Whenever there was a snow or ice storm predicted she would make a batch of party mix and make sure that Todd Stevens had a bowl to keep in the truck while he was out plowing.
As a mom, Pat was protective. As a Grandma, she said she was going to correct all the mistakes she made with Candy. She used to have Candy as a child, and then later Rossi, lay on the kitchen counter with their head in the sink so she could wash their hair. What makes the story more interesting is when the cousins or other little ones stayed the night . . . they likewise had to lay on the counter and get their hair washed.
Speaking of hair, Pat never went out unless her hair was just right.
When Pat would play with Rossi they always played school in the room set aside for her upstairs. When Rossi finally went to kindergarten, she felt she could teach the class! She knew exactly what she was supposed to do.
Rossi and Pat had a bond. Not only does Rossi look like Grandma, she has similar tastes and possessed a similar orneriness.
Later in life Rossi got hold of Pat’s flip phone and took a picture of the Pat’s toilet to use as the background image when you opened the phone. Pat was horrified that every time she opened her phone it showed her toilet. The problem was she didn’t know how to change the image, and Rossi was having too much fun to have any desire to change it.
Everyone in the family knew that when Pat started to point at you and wag her finger, you had better be paying attention. And when she curled her tongue (she only did this when she was really frustrated) you would be wise to stop talking and start moving in the other direction because you were about to cross a dangerous line!
If you stepped out of line, you would be reminded that God was watching you, and He would get you. You had to believe that God was telling you the truth!
The entire family was involved at the Christian Church and Pat served in various ways in the church. Her home is scattered with Bibles and there were Scripture verses written in various places all over the house. She liked to listen to and read Joyce Meyers.
When most people think of Pat Yetter they will remember her as a Teacher’s Aide in Kindergarten. She was an Aide for Mary Jacob, Connie Engel, and for many years, Joyce Crim. She loved her job.
She had a lot of fun with Tiny Rodeffer, Rachel Neff, and Hazel Mae Little. But mostly, she enjoyed the kids.
Joyce said Pat was the “wind beneath her wings.” She was an indispensable part of the Kindergarten Class. Pat never gossiped about others, she never used bad words, and she was always neat and orderly. She had a strong work ethic and was always there early. Pat would come in several days before school started for no pay to make sure the room was ready for the new school year.
Often when Joyce needed ideas for crafts, she would ask Pat and she would come up with something creative for the kids to do.
Once Joyce had some small letter people (to help the children recognize letters) and said she wished she had some big and colorful pictures of these letter people and Pat projected the little pictures onto to bigger paper and traced each letter and person. Then she went home and she and Candy helped color them. She went way above and beyond in her job.
While Joyce was teaching, Pat handled the various child “emergencies” so effectively that Joyce could just go right on teaching with the knowledge the situation was well under control. Joyce credits Pat with helping her to become acclimated to kindergarten rather than the other way around.
For Pat, working with kindergarten children was not her job, it was her ministry. She embraced ownership of her job and did it to the best of her ability.
It was probably her 24 years of Kindergarten experience that let to her having boxes of Kleenex all over the house and to find Kleenex folded and clothing, purses, and anywhere else she could stash them. You never knew when you might need them for a bloody nose or someone who had a bad cold.
I will always remember Pat out walking. Sometimes she would be walking with the kindergarten kids on one of their field trips and at other times she was just out walking on her own. She was a classy woman.
Pat would have hated these last 6 years. She was not herself. It was painful to not be able to spend time with her because of Covid. Wayne never got to hug or kiss his bride after March of 2020.
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As we share these memories it is easy to feel sad. But it is better to feel grateful. We should be grateful for the life that shined brightly in our often hazy world. We should also be grateful for the promise of Christ that because He lives, we too shall live beyond the grave. In other words, this is not the end for Pat. It is simply the end of the beginning.
In 2 Corinthians 5 we read these words,
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.
It is important that we understand this hope of ours. We do not believe Pat Yetter is in Heaven because she was a good woman. As people on earth go, she was indeed a good woman.
However, the Bible says there is no one who is good by God’s standards. We are all sinful people. Our crimes against God (which is what sin is) may not be as many as some others but they are all capital offences. They all result in being eternally separated from God.
We believe Pat is in Heaven today not because she was good, but because she trusted Christ who died to pay for our offenses. Her allegiance was to Him. This is why we are confident that she lives even though she died.
The most famous verse in the Bible states this clearly. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so whosever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life.” ETERNAL LIFE!
This life is like the cab you take to airport so you can board a flight to your destination. C.S. Lewis called this life the “Title page” to the great story that goes on and on and every chapter is better than the one before.
It’s OK to be sad. A shining light has gone out in this world in which we live. However, we need to remember that our sadness is for OUR loss not Pat’s. Pat has lost nothing! On the contrary, last Friday, she stepped into the arms of Jesus, and looked into the eyes of the One who has loved her since before the creation of the Universe. She is more alive today than she ever imagined she could be. And I suspect there is a reunion taking place in Heaven that makes the reunions here seem like a bunch of strangers standing at a stoplight waiting to cross the street.
We should rejoice for Pat. We should also reflect on her life and draw some lessons from her. Here are ten lessons you might consider,
1. If you are going to do a job, do it well. You might as well enjoy it. You may just change lives as you do so.
2. If you are going to fly to the Bahama’s spend your time on the beach and enjoying the resort. Don’t spend it in your room.
3. The discipline of writing out Scripture verses is a good practice, even if you never look at them again.
4. There is no such thing as “inconsequential little things.” Little things, when done with love, can change people’s lives.
5. You never know when you or someone else might need a Kleenex. So always keep some in your pockets.
6. When you buy a new cellphone learn all about it BEFORE you let your grandchildren see it.
7. Before you do your laundry, always make sure the Kleenex are out of your pockets.
8. Serve the Lord and not the limelight. The limelight is temporary; serving the Lord will be remembered forever.
9. Covid can keep us from our loved ones, but it cannot keep us from loving them.
10. Finally, the most important decision of our life is how we will respond to the open arms of Jesus. It is the most important decision of this live because it opens the door to the next life.
Let’s pray together,
“Our Father, we thank you for the life, the example, and the love of Pat Yetter. We ask you to warmly welcome her to the place you have prepared for her.
We also ask that you bring comfort to those she leaves behind. We especially ask you to comfort and strengthen Wayne. His loss is more profound than we understand. You understand, however. Please grant Him your strength and comfort. Grant your comfort also to Candy and Rossi and other members of the family.
Father remind us of stories we have forgotten. Enrich us with stories we have never heard before. Help this family and these friends to be strengthened by these memories and by the faith and promise that is our through Jesus. Amen
Most of all, grant us the faith that Pat possessed. Help us to live our lives walking with you so that when our time comes to step into eternity it will be a familiar path.
We ask all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
-Rev Bruce Goettsche