Alice A. Wolf

John – I am so sorry to learn about your mother’s passing. She was a hard worker. I still remember how proud she was to watch you detonate the Shiawasee St. bridge for it’s replacement project, while watching from a work window in the Grand Tower. You were an awesome son and loved her as intensely as she loved you. Take care and receive strength in knowing she is at peace. Blessings!

Dear John and Family,

We are deeply saddened to hear of Alice’s passing. She was such a warm and caring person with the most wonderful sense of humor. Alice always reminded me so much of her mother who had such a lovely personality.

Please know that we are thinking of you all at this difficult time.

With our love, your cousins, John, Laurie and Ruthie Blackwell

If I would have delivered a message about my Aunt Alice last Saturday, I would have shared the following to encourage those who greatly miss her as I do.

Some people as they get older turn more mean and crotchety. You know who I am talking about. You know who just popped into your head when I said that. YOU know who I’m -talking- about!!! If that person who just popped into your head is family, you love them because they are your family, but you do not want to spend much time with them. Well… Alice Wolf is -not- that person who just popped into your head when you thought about a mean and crotchety person as they got older. My Aunt Alice was a fighter all her life, but she was -not- a mean or crotchety person.

On the other end of the extreme are those people who get sweeter and kinder as they get older. When you think of sweet old ladies, Alice Wolf — like her mother and sister Nancy who she has joined in Heaven — was exactly that person. It is my belief that as these dear people get closer to God, they just become filled with sweetness and kindness. They become more like God as God gives them more and more fruits of the Spirit. They are filled with Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Some people at the end of their lives are chalk full of these fruits — Galatians 5:22-23! Not all people are filled with all these fruits, but God gives each a good portion of each after they have given their lives to Him, and He just continues to give and give.

My Aunt Alice could fill the whole room with laughter. She was a hugger and a kisser! Whenever I saw her, she always gave me a big hug and a kiss and said: “oh how I have missed you!” She knew how to give a -proper- hug. She was a larger than life kind of person who -delighted- in life and loved people and her pets. If she was your friend, you knew it because she loved you and her face was filled with sheer delight whenever she saw you! Whenever I asked her: How are you, Aunt Alice, she would almost invariably say: well Shannon, I am hanging in there… hanging in! You see, Aunt Alice was not delusional. She would not lie about how she was doing. Most of us will say: oh, I’m okay. Not Aunt Alice. She was honest about how she was doing and she was a realist. For a long time, I did not like her answer. I am the kind of person who does not want to just hang in there. I am the kind of person who wants to -thrive-! However, after facing some rough times in my own life, I have found myself repeating my Aunt Alice’s wise and telling phrase.

You know, my Aunt Alice faced a world of trouble. She had 3 children who passed away long before their time. I will not get into any details, but she had family troubles and financial troubles too terrible to share here, but I could share with you in person. Throughout all her challenges — which would have sunk most people — she just kept hanging in! I do not know when she came to Christ, but I do know that Alice Wolf was a true believer. She was a Christ follower. This means that she recognized she was a sinner (Romans 3:23); recognized she needed forgiveness for her sins (1 John 1:9), believed that Jesus died on the cross for her and rose again (1 Corinthians 15:3-4); desired to surrender her life to Christ (Galatians 2:20); and she received Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior (Revelation 3:20).

I would have shared at the funeral our most fun memories of Blackwell Christmas parties and Green Lake — oh what wonderful memories! Alice Wolf is dearly missed by her Grandchildren, her son John, her sister Hope, her many nieces and nephews and by her dear Church family. We all hope to thrive again soon, and only because of the blood and grace of Jesus Christ, we will be thriving together in heaven. However, right now at this very point in our lives, we are all just hanging in there. We are hanging in!!