Memories of My Sister, Virginia

by Julia Ann Lane O’Dell

One of my cherished possessions is a tiny piece of cardboard that I keep in the corner of a framed photograph of my sister, Virginia Lane Bolzern. I found it in my Bible while in my first year of Ambassador College. It reads: “I love you. Wish you were with me now. Virginia.” That message of love written 24 1/2 years ago gives me joy every time I glance at her picture on my bedroom wall. That message represents Virginia’s heart. She loved her family and friends dearly and she expressed it to them often in spoken words and written words, and of course, by her actions in life.

Virginia and I spent most of our young childhood in Brenham, Texas, from May of 1957 through May of 1967. Virginia was 1 ¾ years old, and I had just turned 4 when we moved there. Being sisters of only 2 years apart, we had a very close companionship and very special times of constant creative play. I am sure many children had similar experiences. We especially enjoyed two doll houses with their miniature people and furniture. We combined our “modern” plastic and metal models with our parents’ and grandparents’ wooden, rag, and china pieces. The doll house family members all had names, and we acted out scenarios for days on end. When Virginia received a Barbie Dreamhouse, we had the same kind of creative play with Barbie, Babbette (Virginia’s fashion doll) and their other friends. Virginia had a paper doll set called Dozens of Cousins with which we loved to play. Of course, there were precious stuffed animals and regular dolls too. We were blessed to spend just as much creative playtime out of doors because of the very moderate climate of south central Texas. Our rented home had a lovely outdoor one-room cottage playhouse in the backyard for domestic make-believe. We also had a nice swing set, which we pretended was a more exotic venue like a pirate ship or jungle dwelling. The concrete front porch was tall with two open sides and set above the gentle slope between our home and the neighbor’s yard. This made a perfect natural stage for dramatic play-acting and dress-up. Much of our imaginary play came from books and stories and some from children’s and family television of the time. Occasionally, we would run into children who didn’t know how to join in the make-believe games. We couldn’t imagine someone not being able to imagine.

My mother gave us the love of reading. She always read to Virginia and me wonderful classic youth books such as Charlotte’s Web, Heidi, Little Women, Life With Father, and Cheaper By The Dozen. We laughed and we cried. She took us to the library as well, and our father also purchased books for us. We loved children’s collections such as Honey Bunch, The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, and The Hardy Boys. Like many small towns, our library had wonderful old children’s books that are probably out of print and discarded by larger libraries today. Virginia always loved books and reading.

After Ambassador College, Virginia went back to school and earned a Master of Library Science degree at Texas Women’s University in August 1981. We were so very proud of her. After working in the San Angelo library, she later returned to Ambassador to work as cataloguer / librarian.

We had fond memories of the springs and summers in Brenham in Washington County, Texas. Weather was warm and lovely by Texas Independence Day on March 2. We usually drove over to the site of the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington on the Brazos State Park. Virginia always enjoyed remembering March 2 and wishing us a happy Texas Independence Day each year even though she lived away from her home state. In March and April, the bluebonnets and red paintbrushes bloomed in the pastures. We loved our family drives to “ooh” and “ah” over God’s handiwork. Toward the end of school the dewberries would be ripe for picking. The wonderful pies and cobblers made up for the usual sunburn, mosquito and chigger bites that accompanied those ventures. One time we also picked sour wild grapes to process later for juice and jelly. The processing to get the juice and to remove the skin, pulp, and seeds was a more difficult job than our mother and we had imagined. When our parents bought a home in an addition on the edge of town, there was a pasture filled with wildflowers and weeds behind us. Virginia was wonderful to help me work on a project of identifying the various wildflowers. We also spent a great deal of time playing pioneers in the backyard and pasture. Our Grandmother Ailene (Pierson) had given Virginia a sunbonnet which she enjoyed wearing. Mother also made us cotton print “granny gowns” (long pioneer-type dresses) with matching sunbonnets.

Our family bought a piano in 1960, and both of us took piano lessons into high school. Although Virginia didn’t choose piano as a college study and career as I did, I admired her for sticking with it. Her favorite song to play was “How Great Thou Art.” As Girl Scouts for many years, Virginia and I benefited from the comradery, the experience of selling cookies, the badge work and skills learned, and Girl Scout day and overnight camping during summers in Brenham.

Our father traveled in his business, and we also traveled a lot as a family because our relatives lived in other distant towns. In Dublin, Texas, where we were born and where our Grandmother Lane lived, we often met up with our Prindle cousins, and in Sanderson, Texas, where our mother grew up, we met up with our younger Willard cousins. Our Pierson cousins lived around the world (Uncle Earl, Jr. was a marine officer), and we knew them through letters and pictures. It was a great joy to Virginia and me to get to know Maureen Pierson Skarzynski and her family when they moved to Texas about 1997. For several summers, the Lane family held reunions in Waxahachie, Texas, where Uncle Ford Lane lived. Our Beck family relatives lived in the Texas Panhandle where our maternal grandmother grew up. We mostly knew these loved ones through letters. Our mother and both grandmothers were daily letter writers. Our mother read aloud to us the family letters that would come in the mail. When visiting our grandmothers, it was important to them for us to read letters from relatives and catch up on any news they had received. I believe that Virginia’s love of keeping in contact with so many friends and loved ones and Virginia’s journaling came from this wonderful heritage.

Virginia loved cats. On trips to Sanderson we delighted in seeing the many cats that Grandmother Ailene took care of and fed. We weren’t allowed to own a cat until we were older children. Before we moved from Brenham, Virginia adopted a Siamese kitten from her school friend, Martha House. We named it Abraham because it was born on Lincoln’s birthday, February 12. Abraham was a very good-tempered cat, and, although he hated car travel, he survived two long-distance moves and several local moves. After Abraham died, my parents and Virginia got another Siamese cat, Conrad (named after Conrad Hilton), and he had a long life. Virginia and Mark were blessed to have their special “Cat” for many years, who made the trip with them from Alaska to Denver. When Virginia and Mark came to see my family in Amarillo, Virginia always wanted to hold and love our cat, “Kitty.” Virginia would say that she needed her “kitty fix.” She really missed having a cat.

Growing up is surely easier when you have a sister who is your close friend. This was especially important when our family moved several times during our teen years. We moved to McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, in summer 1967. I entered high school (9^th) and Virginia started junior high (7^th). Barely into the school year at the new schools, we had to evacuate McAllen when Hurricane Beulah hit South Texas. When this evacuation occurred, Virginia and I were actually staying with a family in our neighborhood because our parents were at a conference out of town. Fortunately, the family took us to our parents, and it all worked out. Our cat, Abraham, rode out the hurricane in the garage. Upon returning, we were so very glad that the cat and house made it through the storm. We enjoyed living in McAllen’s semi-tropical climate with beautiful palms and citrus trees. We also enjoyed its Tex-Mex culture because of its proximity to Mexico.

In January of 1970, our family moved to Dallas, and, for the next few years, we lived in several towns in the Mid-Cities area of the Metroplex. In the fall of 1970, Virginia and I entered L.D. Bell High School in Hurst, Texas, for our sophomore and senior years, respectively. We enjoyed being at the same school, and, to our surprise, people often thought we were twins or that we were the same person. We didn’t realize that we looked that much alike at that time. We graduated from L.D. Bell High School two years apart. I was so glad that Virginia joined me at Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, in the fall of 1973. I graduated from Ambassador in 1975, and Virginia graduated in 1977. Virginia was happy when Sammy O’Dell and I became engaged and were married on the Ambassador College campus, May 30,1976. Virginia was my maid of honor. Ten years later on May 26, 1986 on the Ambassador campus, I would be her matron of honor for her wedding to Mark Bolzern. Virginia met Mark, who was from Alaska, when she and our parents went to Alaska for a fall church conference.

They lived in Alaska for the first several years of their marriage.

I know that Virginia loved my daughters, her nieces Christy and Karen, very much. The girls were ages eight and four when Virginia and Mark married. When Virginia and Mark moved from Alaska to Aurora, Colorado, the girls enjoyed exploring the unique home with an underground level for the offices, guest rooms and a ping-pong table. We also enjoyed some wonderful trips to Vail and Keystone for church conventions with Mark and Virginia. They made the long trip to the Texas Panhandle to be at both of the girls’ high school graduations, Christy’s and Nick’s (Lopez) wedding, and Nick’s senior viola recital at Texas Tech. Virginia and Mark welcomed our son-in-law Nick and were excited to be a part of his large extended family. When Karen’s University Choir and Orchestra came through Colorado on their performing tour, Virginia cleared her schedule so that she could attend the concerts and also spend some of the group’s free time with Karen. In the last two years or so, it was important to Virginia to make each girl a crocheted afghan with special colors in mind that they would like. She made them with love, and they will treasure them as they enjoy using them. Virginia was excited to hear of the new baby boy that Christy and Nick are expecting in July (2007). She got to talk to Christy and Nick about it a few times in the last weeks of her life. One of Virginia’s last acts of love for Karen was her determination to read one of the books that Karen was analyzing for her master’s thesis, The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins. Virginia did finish it and spent time on the phone discussing the book and Victorian detective fiction with Karen. She would have loved spending a lifetime doing such things.

When Virginia was diagnosed with cancer, she wanted us to have some very special times together as sisters. She came to Amarillo to spend a week with me. It was during a busy time for my work. Besides listening to the piano students in my studio, she attended an Amarillo Music Teachers Association meeting with me and watched me work on the entry forms for several recitals and a judged festival. She was so very glad to be able to know more about my work and related activities. There were also several trips that I made to Aurora at Virginia’s invitation so that we could have some special time. She planned some wonderful activities. On one trip we stayed at a nearby hotel and pampered ourselves at a spa! We also enjoyed walking and shopping downtown in the Larimer Square area. Once we had Sunday lunch at the famous Brown Palace Hotel. We took some wonderful drives in the Denver area, worked out at the gym, visited our Uncle Max and Aunt Tea, and spent time with Virginia’s friends and church groups. My favorite activity was attending the Monday night prayer group with Virginia. These dear ladies have met for about a decade to spend one evening a week in prayer. Most of all, it was just wonderful to spend precious time together as grown-up sisters.

Virginia did not let her serious health problems interfere with her desire to serve the Lord by serving her fellow man. At a time when most would allow themselves to slow down, wherever she lived, Virginia continued participation in activities such as prayer groups, small group studies, art, writing and publicity groups, Bible Study Fellowship, Stonecroft Ministries, and Christian Women’s Club. She and Mark also earned a two-year degree from Charis Bible College in 2004. Anyone who knew Virginia knew that she put her all into every activity and job. She read large portions of Scripture daily. She read books for Christian edification, education, evangelism, and apologetics. In the last months of her life, she had read several books that would help explain and defend Christianity, and she was planning to re-read a book which would improve her social and speaking skills. She lived her life prepared to be in God’s service as long as He had work for her in this life. Because of her life and testimony, she was given the opportunity to speak before several groups in Oregon and Washington. She drove long distances by herself to fulfill the speaking tour commitment in Washington State even as her health was declining. She spent much time in intercessory prayer. In one of our phone calls toward the end of her life, she told me, “I’m spending the day thanking God for my blessings.”

We are thankful that the modern technology of computers, Internet, and cell phones gave our family many precious communications with Virginia in the last 10 years.

Virginia’s journal, book reviews, devotional writing, and newsletters for their Bring Back the Joy (BBtJ.org) web-based encouragement ministry allowed friends and loved ones to keep up with her health and their daily activities. We have shared their life and Christian service through the journal in Aurora/Colorado Springs, Colorado; Hominy/Tulsa, Oklahoma; LaPine/Bend, Oregon; and other travels beyond and in between. In the last few years, Virginia made frequent phone calls to her family and close friends. Even though she was so far away, the loving phone calls, several times a week, made our lives seem close to each other. One of her common expressions was, “I don’t have anything brilliant to say.” She just wanted to be in touch, and it was very special to know that my family and I were loved so much. Our father, Kight Lane, received frequent phone calls from Virginia. She always used the same greeting. When he picked up the phone, he heard, “Hello, Daddy! This is Virginia.” He said, “What a thrill it was to hear her voice!” We will miss her greatly, and she will always be in our hearts. I thank God for the blessed hope and surety of eternal life and look forward to being with my sister, Virginia, again.

Julia Ann Lane O’Dell

Spring 2007

Eulogy

As her husband, Mark, has reminded us, Virginia H. Lane Bolzern entered this world prematurely, and it would seem to those of us who loved her that she left this world prematurely. Her father, Kight Lane, has comforted us by saying that Virginia “finished the course” (2 Timothy 4:7), the work that God wanted her to complete. Her sister, Julia, has always known that when the Lord returned he would find Virginia “so doing” (Luke 12:43).

Virginia H. Lane Bolzern was born August 8, 1955 in Dublin, Texas, to her parents, Julian Kight Lane and Harriet Pierson Lane. She died March 8, 2007 at the age of 51 in Turner, Oregon, with her husband, Mark Bolzern, holding her hand. Virginia was a graduate of L.D. Bell High School in Hurst, TX in 1973, and Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas in 1977. She received a Masters of Library Science degree from Texas Women’s University in 1981 and graduated from Charis Bible College in 2004. She worked for Tom Green County Public Library in San Angelo, TX, and Ambassador College Library in Big Sandy, TX. She was married to Mark Bolzern on May 26, 1986 at Big Sandy. She is survived by her husband Mark Bolzern of Bend Oregon; her father, Kight Lane, of Lubbock, TX; her sister, Julia Lane O’Dell and husband, Sammy, of Amarillo, TX, and their daughters, Karen Beth O’Dell, and Christine Ann O’Dell Lopez and husband, Nick; brothers-in-law Chris Bolzern, of Bend, Oregon, and Ron Bolzern, of England, and their families. She was preceded in death by her mother, Harriet Pierson Lane. Virginia also left behind many loved ones and dear friends.

Mark has always referred to Virginia as his best friend. Following time in Alaska, they moved to Aurora, Colorado, where Virginia helped Mark in the computer services businesses that they owned and developed. In 2002 they began a career change to be able to spend more time in Christian service. Following graduation from CBC, Mark and Virginia felt called to develop a web-based encouragement ministry called Bring Back the Joy (BBtJ.org). Virginia’s journal, and book reviews, and the couple’s quarterly newsletter have been a source of inspiration, encouragement, fellowship, and education to many hundreds of readers.

Some personal notes about Virginia: She loved reading books, drinking a warm cup of tea, holding a cat on her lap, and visiting with friends and loved ones by phone calls, in person, email or journal. Virginia loved well-prepared food, organic food, baking, and special family meals and get-togethers with family and friends. Virginia was a fine artist, talented at crochet, and played piano for her own enjoyment. She committed to walking long distances for fitness and improvement of her health. She was devoted to her Monday night prayer group in Aurora for about a decade, and was active in Stonecroft Ministries and Christian Women’s Club in central Oregon. Anyone who knew Virginia saw that she gave her all to any job or endeavor that she undertook or was asked to do. She loved people and took a sincere interest in everyone with whom she was acquainted. She loved to travel and tried to visit as many people as she could on her trips. Virginia touched so many lives and will truly be missed.

Julia Ann Lane O’Dell

Spring 2007