Cathy Grinolds Eulogy

This is a eulogy for Kathy Grenells, a beloved friend and supporter. The speaker recalls Kathy's impact on everyone she met and her willingness to help others. Kathy was described as a hard worker and a loving and supportive person. She was a strong and resilient warrior who fought for good. The speaker also mentions the loyalty and commitment of Kathy and her husband Vic, as they stood up for the speaker during a difficult time. The speaker praises Kathy's children and their heritage of love and loyalty. The eulogy concludes with a message of hope and comfort, referencing biblical passages about the afterlife and the power of love. The speaker expresses their love and grief for Kathy's family and ends with a prayer for the Lord's return. When Dawn asked me to eulogize her mom, I jumped at the chance. Some people are easy on the heart and sweet in your memories. No one better fits in that category than my longtime friend, Kathy Grenells. In May 1985, I saw Turlock for the first time. I was a 23-year-old preacher and the sole candidate to take over the pastorate of the fledgling ministry at Bible Baptist Church. Of the people I met that day, no one made more of an impression on me than Dick and Kathy Grenells. Dick was a sly man with a personality big enough to fill a room. He had an infectious laugh and a twinkle in his eye. Kathy was like his sidekick, there for all the jokes, but was well more than that. She bubbled with life. She had open arms and an open heart for this kid preacher and his little family. We loved them as much as any couple we had ever met. Forty-one years later, we still do. I asked Dawn to share with me a few thoughts about her mom. So she wrote me a couple of heartfelt paragraphs. I feel like she captured the essence of Kathy Grenells in the first two sentences. Mom had an impact on everyone around her. She was supportive to everyone she met and always willing to lend a helping hand. Kathy was that person. When I needed a Sunday school teacher for the younger kids in the church, I approached her. She told me she had never done that and wasn't sure she was qualified. I told her no one was more qualified to make a good impression and have a positive impact on young kids, and I would teach her how to teach the Bible. She said yes. Whenever I needed something from her, she always said yes. When I told Dawnia, my wife, I was writing Kathy's eulogy, I asked her what she remembered about her most. She said this, I remember thinking what a hard worker she was. She was always working, helping to provide for her family. Sometimes she came to church straight from work, still in her work uniform. I remember the first time I went to her house, it was a small home and it was immaculate. I wonder how she managed to carry the workload she did, do all the things at church, and still keep a home completely in order. Vic was one of my best friends in Tarlock. He was a Vietnam veteran who had seen intense conflict. It was during those days that the alcohol demon took hold on him. Like so many before and since, he fought tooth and nail to shake it, to conquer it once and for all. Kathy never wavered in her love for him or in her determination to help him win those battles. She was a warrior. And that's what I remember about Vic and Kathy most. They were warriors, fighters for good. Not long into my ministry in Tarlock, some folks wanted to rid the church of me. They had their reasons and some of them were legit. Vic and Kathy were having none of it. They faced that fight with the fierceness of wolverines. And like mother hens, they engulfed my family and me in wings of love. He's our preacher, they said, he's not going anywhere. Another couple, John and Bertie Tabor, stood right there with them. If it was a fight the troublemakers wanted, then a fight they would get. This was my first taste of that kind of love, loyalty, and commitment from church members. Vic and Kathy's children, Sean, Don, and Kenny, grew up under my ministry. In our communications about this service, Don wrote to me on September 27th, good morning Pastor Strother. I say that because my family says you will always be our pastor. My birthday was the next day. Those words were the first and the best gift I received this year. My daughters were very young when we were in Tarlock. John was herself a young teen. She was also our babysitter of choice when we had a chance to go out on a date. I never worried about my kids when they were in Don's care. She was a good person. She was reliable and responsible. I remember thinking those qualities are rare in teens her age. They don't come about accidentally. She got it from her mother. Vic was the funny bone. When he laughed, you had no choice but to laugh with him. She was the backbone. She was the strong, resilient, untiring champion of her family. Don, Sean, and Kenny, and your kids, you have a wonderful heritage, a legacy of love and loyalty. You have something to stand on, to live up to, and to pass on to your children. I know you will. Don and I love you. We grieve your loss with you. We also celebrate with you. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians some instructions on how the believer should view the death of a loved one. He wrote, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, also them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. Hope is why we are here. Hope that passes understanding. Hope that does not fear death. Hope that never says goodbye. Paul also wrote the greatest description of love ever penned in 1 Corinthians 13. Listen and see if you do not see Kathy Grenells written all over it. It profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will fail. Where there are tongues, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, and love, these three. But the greatest of these is love. In 2021, Donya and I returned to Turlock for the first time since leaving in 1991. We came back to visit the place that birthed our pastoral ministry and the people who poured themselves into us. It was a last-minute decision, and Kathy was unavailable that day. We didn't get to see her. Kathy called me later and said, I'm sorry I missed you, Preacher. I missed her too. I still do, and I will until we meet again on that happy golden shore where all of the hard work is finished, the demons are all conquered. Faith has ended in fight, and hope has been swallowed up in glory, and all that remains is love forevermore. God bless the memory of my friend, Kathy Reynolds. God bless you, her friends and family. All that's left for me to do here today is echo the prayer of St. John, the last words of the Revelation. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.